Misconceptions

Misconceptions about Cellular Biology & Tips on How Teachers can Address Them

Misconception: 

A common misconception is that hydrogen bonds is a type of covalent bond because it has the word "bond" in it. Students may mistake this and think that hydrogen bonds are intramolecular bonds, but they are intermolecular bonds. 

Strategies for Challenging the Misconception: 

(A) simulations 

The simulation below is from The Concord Consortium. This simulation can be used to explore hydrogen bonds. The simulation shows how as water molecules move and interact, hydrogen bonds are formed and broken. They are not covalent bonds because they are temporary intermolecular forces. This simulation is also great because it allows students to play around with temperature as a variable for hydrogen bond formation. 

(B) images 

Images and visuals are great for explaining and distinguishing the difference between intermolecular forces and intramolecular forces. The image below shows a hydrogen bond with a dotted line BETWEEN two water molecule atoms. It has also labelled where the covalent bonds are and how that contrasts with the hydrogen bond. 

(C) molecular kits 

Educators can challenge misconceptions about bonds and intramolecular or intermolecular forces using molecular kits. This will allow students to create their own molecules and see how atoms come together and are assembled. It allows for a 3D visualization. 

Misconception: 

A common misconception is that if a molecule contains a polar covalent bond, that must mean that the molecule is polar. This misconception is that a polar covalent bond is not the same as a polar molecule. A molecule can have polar covalent bonds, but depending on its 3D arrangement, the polar covalent bonds can cancel each other out. As a result, you are left with a non-polar molecule. 

Strategies for Challenging the Misconception: 

(A) simulations 

The simulation below allows students to explore molecule polarity. As an educator, you can use the "three atom" option to show the class a three atom molecule. This simulation has the option of showing bond dipoles, partial charges, and molecular dipoles. You can use this feature to show how the molecular dipole exists in different 3D spatial arrangements (e.g., bent shape) but disappears and gets cancelled out when the molecule is in a linear arrangement. Instead of having students visualize this in their heads, they can see it based on the simulation and play around with it to see how the molecular dipole changes (e.g., in strength) as the molecule changes arrangement. 

(B) images 

See explanation from misconception #1. The image that I have provided below shows examples of non-polar molecules with polar covalent bonds. For example, the partial charges are shown for BF3, however based on its arrangement, the polarity cancels out to create an overall non-polar molecule. Images with labels can help students understand these concepts. 

(C) molecular kits 

See explanation from misconception #1

Misconception: 

FAD diets are everywhere. We tend to hear over social media that fats are bad or harmful and they must be eliminated from our diets. Due to the diet culture that we live in, students may have the misconception that all fats are bad. However, this is not true. There are different kinds of fats and fat is a necessary macromolecule for sustaining metabolic processes (e.g., hormone production, etc). 

Strategies for Challenging the Misconception: 

(A) videos 

Educators can provide students with videos that discuss how different fats work. For example, the video below talks about HDL and LDL. The animation shows how the two lipoproteins or cholesterol work in forming plaque in arteries, or clearing plaque from arteries. It explains how there are good cholesterols and more harmful forms of cholesterol. 

(B) jigsaw activity 

Educators can use jigsaw as an active learning strategy to challenge the diet-culture notion that all fats are bad and need to be eliminated from our diets. Below is a website that states, "11 things that happen to your body when you stop eating fat". Educators can use this website as a starting point by dividing students into groups. The goal is for each group to take on a different statement from this website or article and conduct their own research to provide a rationale that supports the website's statement. The class can return as a whole to discuss. This is a great way to get students involved in their own learning and in challenging their own misconceptions. It teaches them to find tools to determine the validity of statements over the web. 

(C) posters

Educators can use posters to help students categorize and differentiate between the different types of fats along with their benefits and/or consequences. It can also be used as an activity or an assessment where students make their own posters to help them consolidate their understanding of the different kinds of fats. In doing so, creating a poster can help students organize their thoughts. For instance, the poster down below has organized 4 different types of fats and you can see that not all of them are the same or harmful. Having students participate in making their own graphic organizer or poster can consolidate their learning, or find research that challenges their misconception, moving them away from a black/white thinking (e.g., all fats are bad).