Misconception Series: Class 5 Science, Food, Nutrition and Health


Reading Time: 3 minutes

(1) Why was the question asked in ASSET test?


Students are aware of the use of antiseptics in their daily life. They even watch the use and the science behind it on TV commercials. The question was designed to test if students really understand why an antiseptic is used and answer this question based on a general awareness of how they help.

(2) What did students answer?


Only 35% of the students selected the correct answer. 25% of the students selected the wrong option A, while another 23% selected the wrong option D.

Possible reason for choosing A:Students might have used antiseptics on a wound, on getting hurt. They must have felt the pain subsiding after a while. They probably attribute this reduction in pain to the use of an antiseptic, incorrectly. They might be confusing “antiseptic” with an anaesthetic or a pain killer drug.

Possible reason for choosing B:Students selecting this option are most probably making a random guess.

Possible reason for choosing D:Students selecting this option have a wrong notion about antiseptics and consider them to be medicines that cure a disease. They don’t seem to be differentiating antiseptics from disease-specific medicines.

(3) Learnings


‘Antiseptic’, ‘disinfectant’ and ‘antibiotic’ are three terms that are often used in a wrong sense. An antiseptic is an antimicrobial substance applied on a living tissue/skin to prevent infection or sepsis. A disinfectant is a substance that kills microbes but is applied on non-living surfaces. And an antibiotic is a substance that stops the growth of specific microbes inside the body.

Students know the use of antiseptics as well as medicines. They must have used both at different times. They were expected to answer this question based on this general awareness. But as indicated by the wrong answer percentages, they don’t seem to be able to differentiate between the two. Some students probably confuse it with an anaesthetic drug or a pain killer, and think that it might help to reduce the pain a patient feels. And some other students consider them to be the medicines that cure diseases because that was the only thing they might have used on a wound. But they don’t realise that it is not a disease in the person that is getting cured by its use. It just helps to clear the wound by removing the microbes that might settle on the wound from the air. The low percentage of correct responses also indicates that many children are not learning scientific facts through daily life experiences and observations. Daily experiences should lead to discussions with teachers and parents, for scientific thinking to develop.

(4) How do we handle this?


It is important that students understand the difference between the different terms — antibiotic, antiseptic etc. and understand the effect of using each of them.

Students should be able to appreciate such ideas based on the day-to-day experiences and proper logical analysis of those observations. They should be encouraged to observe and question things happening around them. They can then be guided to the correct answer through discussion. The use of antiseptics is one example and there can be various such examples like –

• Why do plants start drooping when not watered for a few days? • Why don’t we drink antiseptics or disinfectants if they are similar to medicines? • Can the food cook if the pressure cooker is not sealed?

It is important that children observe such things and make a mental model of the working of these things. But it is equally important that we monitor such models and lead them to the scientific way of thinking, as required. Useful resource#2 has some suggestions- the teacher could even suggest some activities for parents to do with children.

For more information about ASSET, write to us at info@ei-india.com

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Originally published at blog.ei-india.com on May 22, 2015.