A key aspect of the new ways of teaching science is to focus on helping students overcome deeply rooted misconceptions that ＿＿（36）＿＿ with learning. Especially in people’s knowledge of the physical, it is clear that prior knowledge, constructed out of personal experiences and observations—conflict with new learning. ＿＿（37）＿＿ are useful for explaining why a rock falls faster than a leaf, but they can lead to misconceptions that are difficult to overcome. Misconceptions, ＿＿（38）＿＿, are also the starting point for new approaches to teaching scientific thinking. By probing students’ beliefs and helping them develop ways to ＿＿（39）＿＿ conflicting views, teachers can guide students to construct coherent and broad understandings of scientific concepts. This and other new approaches are major breakthroughs in teaching science. Students can often answer face-based questions on tests that imply understanding, but misconceptions will ＿＿（40）＿＿ as the students are questioned about scientific concepts.