Common Misconceptions in Science

I had already been teaching for several years when my son came home from kindergarten and said “Mom, I know the three types of living things: plants, animals, and people.” My head spun, I felt faint, and my life as a science teacher flashed before my eyes! Not really, but I truly was taken aback. “Is this where common misconceptions in science start?” I wondered.

I mean – I see them all the time in my science classroom. Year after year, students come to me with some pretty interesting misconceptions. Some are recurring, some are new (like when did this flat Earth crap start!?), and some are eye-opening (like eggs come from trees – true story).

A little bit ago, I asked my readers what misconceptions they hear in their science classrooms over and over, year after year. Some were funny, some seemed regional, but for the most part, I was nodding my head in total agreement.

I received a huge number of responses, many of which were similar. To keep things organized, I used ChatGPT to compile a list of what people said, ranked by how often each response appeared.

🥁 Drum roll, please…

RANKED: Your Most Common Science Misconceptions:

• Batteries store electricity.
• Bacteria is always bad/dangerous.
• Humans evolved from monkeys.
• Blood is blue in veins.
• Earth is closer to the Sun in summer.
• Magnets attract all metals.
• Humans never went to the moon.
• Cold moves.
• You only use 10% of your brain.
• Our solar system is on the same scale as textbook drawings.
• Islands float.
• Dinosaur fossils are their actual bones.
• Bats are blind.
• Earth is flat. (Are we really here as a society?!)
• Air does not have mass/matter.
• Heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. 
• Earth is warmer at the equator because it is closer to the Sun.
• Weathering is the same as weather.
• Seasons are caused by changing temperatures.
• Looking at the Milky Way, the light in the center is the Sun.
• Microorganisms are as small as atoms.
• Earth’s core energy comes from the Sun.
• Planets’ orbits are highly elliptical (like in textbook drawings).
• Dominant traits are always the most common.
• Thermal expansion means the particles themselves get bigger.
• Sleeping is our source of energy.
• Seeds are not living things.
• Bananas grow on trees. (I honestly didn’t know this one!)
• AD (time) means “after death.”
• The sun rises and lowers into and out of the ocean (Yikes!)
• There’s a definitive boundary between the atmosphere and space.
• Any large object will always exert greater force than any smaller object.
• Only boy cows have horns; girl cows can’t have them.
• Chickens are the only animals that lay eggs.
• You lose 80% of your heat through your head. (I didn’t know this wasn’t true!)
• There are above-ground caves. (I learned this isn’t true, too!)

Great. Now what?

Okay, so we’ve got this carnival of misconceptions swirling around in our students’ minds, from floating islands to blue blood. So how do we tackle them?

It’s not like we can just give a thousand mini-lessons to correct common misconceptions in science. I don’t know about you, but I can’t take extra class time just to go through this list. Plus, I’m sure there are a million more misconceptions where these came from!

So, let’s talk in broad strokes versus individual misconceptions.

1. Go Fishing for Misconceptions

Ask What They Know

Before delving into a new topic, use a simple warm-up or KWL chart (“Know, Want to Know, Learned”) to see what students already believe. I’m not saying to spend a lot of time on this. I certainly do NOT. I do this as a fast starter activity. But you’ll quickly find out some misconceptions you need to correct.

For example, this is when I often find out, at the start of my cell energy unit, that “plants make food for animals,” as though plants exist entirely to feed animals. At the beginning of my energy unit, I often see, “batteries store electricity.” And always to begin my evolution unit, “people came from monkeys.”

Quick Surveys

When you know there’s some big, very common misconceptions going into a unit, you can do a brief poll to begin. I put a question on the board with 3 possible answers. I have students come up one by one (in a line, basically all at once) to put a checkmark by the answer they think is the correct one.

For example, I’ll write, “Why do we experience summer in July and August?” One of the answer choices will be correct, one of the answer choices will be “because we are closer to the Sun in summer,” and another answer choice will be something silly like, “Because Taylor Swift said so.”

No one really knows whose checkmark is whose, so this no-judgment prompt lets misconceptions bubble to the surface without singling anyone out. The number of check marks next to the wrong answer – the misconception – tells you a lot!

When everyone has answered, we discuss the correct answer and why the wrong answer is a misconception. It’s a great way to start off the unit on the correct foot.

Brain Dumps

Give students 5 minutes to do a “brain dump” of everything they think they know about a topic. You’d be surprised how candid they’ll be. Keep your poker face intact when reading them. (Trust me, you’ll want to laugh at some, but it’s pure gold for insight.)

2. Encourage a Classroom Culture of Curiosity

Normalize “I Don’t Know”

Let’s be real: None of us has the entire universe of knowledge swirling around in our heads. (If you do, please call me – I have questions). When students see us admit gaps in our own understanding, it sends the powerful message that learning doesn’t stop once you’re an adult.

Say, “I was today years old when I found out bananas don’t grow on trees.” Or, “I didn’t realize that mushrooms aren’t plants until I was in college.” This kind of moment flips the script. It shows them that everyone is on the same journey of discovery, and it’s 100% okay not to have all the answers. In fact, not knowing something can be the most exciting part because it means there’s something new to explore.

So, the next time you’re stumped or have your own “ah-ha” moment, own it. Let students see your process of finding out. They’ll learn that curiosity and the willingness to admit, “Huh, I didn’t know that,” are the real superpowers in science. (And in life, right!?)

Learn more about how I incorporate the growth mindset in my classroom HERE.

“Why?”

If you hear a misconception, ask, “Why do you think that?” As soon as we pose this question, we shift the responsibility for reasoning back to the student. They have to articulate, out loud, the path that led them to their belief – whether it’s well-founded or a total shot in the dark. This is important because it forces them to look at why they believe what they do.

Even better, when a student ends up revising their original idea, it feels like they did the work of learning rather than just being corrected by you.

3. Use Simple Demos and Models

A simple demo or hands-on activity goes a long way to dispel some common misconceptions in science at the beginning of a unit. Instead of just telling them the “right” idea, let them see it!

A quick Google search is a great help to find ideas, but here are a few of my favorite hands-on, quick, and simple ways to dispel some myths.

• Air Has Mass: Place a balloon with no air in it on one side of a balance scale, then add a blown-up balloon to the other side of the scale. When we add the balloon with air in it to the scale, we see that the balance is thrown off, showing the balloon with air in it has weight. You can also separately put an empty balloon and a filled balloon on a digital scale to show the difference in mass. This quick demo stops the misconception that “air doesn’t weigh anything.”
• Not All Metals Are Magnetic: Pass out magnets and a small tray of items: paper clips, aluminum foil, copper wire, nails, etc. Have students test each object to see if it sticks to the magnet or not. They’ll quickly realize that only certain metals (like iron or steel) are magnetic. It’s a quick, simple, hands-on activity that shows “magnets attract metal” isn’t always true.
• Does Cold Move?: Take a metal spoon and a plastic spoon, both at room temperature, and let students feel each. Ask students which feels colder. They’ll likely pick the metal spoon, even though both spoons are the same temperature. Explain that the metal conducts heat away from their hand faster, which gives the illusion that “cold” is moving in. This simple touch test flips the idea that cold is an active thing – really, heat flows out of your hand.
• Vein Color: If students think blood is “blue” in the veins, use a strong flashlight (like one on a phone) in a darkened room. Have students press the light gently against their palm or fingertip and observe the reddish glow through the tissue. Emphasize that blood is still red; veins only appear blue because of how skin and tissue scatter light.
• Dominant Traits Aren’t Always Most Common: Have students do a quick class poll on genetic traits commonly known to be dominant, such as tongue-rolling, widow’s peak, or attached earlobes. Tally how many in the class show each trait, and compare results. Often, you’ll find that a dominant trait isn’t actually the majority trait.
• Particles Move Along Waves: This is my go-to at the beginning of a wave unit. Kids always think that particles get pushed forward by waves, not up and down. Check out this FREE waves demo idea that shows this isn’t true!

• Seasons: If your students think Earth is warmer in summer because it’s closer to the Sun, you can show them why we really have seasons with a lamp (Sun) or flashlight and a globe. Dim the room lights, place the globe at an angle (about 23.5°), and rotate it around the lamp. Highlight how different hemispheres tilt toward or away from the Sun, changing the angle of sunlight. Show that when the flashlight is straight-on to the globe, the light is concentrated. When the flashlight is at an angle, the light is spread out. If you want to spend a little more time on it, you can also do this illuminative (see what I did there?!) Earth-Sun distance graphing activity!

• Accurate Solar System Image: Nothing drives me crazier than very inaccurate pictures of the solar system that appear in every textbook! The planets are barely different in size, and they’re all the same distance apart! No! An easy remedy is to have them make their own TO SCALE model of the solar system. They’ll find very quickly that the distances in their textbook image don’t line up with reality!

4. Videos and Simulations for the Win

Simulations

Online tools like PhET simulations, PBS Learning Media, Gizmos (you can do a few on a free account), ChemCollective, Exploratorium, and HHMI BioInteractive go a long way for modeling more complex misconceptions. They’re all worth exploring!

🔥 Hot Tip: For some reason, there’s a ton of free resources related to PhET activities on TPT. Not all of them are good quality – and you’ll have to wade through a bit to get to a good one – but if there’s a PhET activity on a topic, there’s for sure a free worksheet to go with it on TPT.

Videos

Videos are always an easy, no-prep way to demolish a misconception in seconds.

• Objects Fall at the Same Rate: Show them side-by-side droppings of a bowling ball and feather in a vacuum chamber in this BBC video.
• 50 Science Misconceptions: Mental Floss has a great fast-paced video that debunks 50 science myths in under 8 minutes. Have an extra 10 minutes at the end of class? This would be great for that!
• Flat Earth: Try this fun video of a flat-Earther proving themselves wrong. (Just be sure to hide the comments. They’re… inappropriate.)
• We Never Went to the Moon: I LOVE this one! MythBusters did a whole episode debunking the “we never went to the moon” conspiracy theory. (“MythBusters” NASA Moon Landing Hoax Season 6 Episode 2) It doesn’t aim to prove that we did land on the moon, but rather it thoroughly debunks all of the typical conspiracy theory arguments. You’ll have to buy the episode, but it’s worth it. I use it every single year. (If you find a free version of it – please let me know – I’ll share it here.)

5. Keep It Simple

Sometimes, you don’t have to find a creative or complex solution to a problem. I love the KISS Principle. (Keep it simple, stupid.)

If you know your students have a misconception about something, maybe the best course of action is to JUST TELL THEM.

I wrote something that makes this quite easy! Check out my Top 15 Science Misconceptions Explained Article and Questions. It’s not complicated – it simply addresses the most common misconceptions head-on and then explains the real science!

🔥 Hot Tip: This makes an awesome emergency sub plan to keep in your back pocket! It’s super self-explanatory, and kids stay engaged with it because it’s got a fun theme!

Conclusion

In the end, it’s not about giving kids 100 mini-lectures to correct each silly (or serious) misconception. It’s about setting up a classroom culture where we tease out misconceptions so we can face them head-on AND model that we’re always learning.

By uncovering what they really think before teaching, letting them explore, and guiding them toward the evidence, we lay a foundation that helps them truly understand what science really is – a process.

And sometimes the funniest misconceptions make the most teachable moments. Embrace them!

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