When you breathe, you inspire. When you do not breathe, you expire.

H2O is hot water, and CO2 is cold water

Water is composed of two gins, Oxygin and Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water.

For a nosebleed: Put the nose much lower then the body until the heart stops.

When you smell an odorless gas, it is probably carbon monoxide

Language used by teachers and textbooks may confuse some students

There is often unexplored conflict between students’ everyday experiences and the classroom or textbook presentation.

Understanding is often expected before students have a chance to adequately explore and convince themselves of what they have been told. “Covering” the curriculum without devoting enough time for building true understanding is counterproductive.

Beliefs resulting from personal experience, intuition, and “common sense” lead students to form their own ideas and models, often well before formal instruction.

Instruction which fails to identify what students’ initial ideas are can leave students’ erroneous ideas unchanged. It’s similar to a doctor diagnosing an illness. You wouldn’t prescribe a course of treatment without examining the symptoms first.

Teachers and schools (even tests!) often erroneously assume that students understand a concept based on the words students use when describing something (e.g.: evaporation).

Pictures, diagrams, and 2- dimensional models in textbooks and other instructional materials can be misleading, and result in misconceptions.

Everyday use of certain terms, often used in nonscientific contexts, contributes to students’ confusion. Some words have many different connotations in the English language and the “scientific word” can easily be confused with a common use (e.g.: I have a theory…).

Demonstrations used by teachers are often passive where students sit back and observe without manipulating materials or experiencing the phenomenon individually or in small groups.

Some common analogies used to explain ideas can cause difficulty because the similarity is not complete.