I have seen this example before. I actually do not blame the students at all for the following reasons (some taken from other comments)
1) They are thinking out loud, so seeing that some aspects points it could be heat conduction(after all that would be the typical reason for most temperature discrepancies withing an item) then they scream "heat conduction" as an invitation for closer look which is a valid (as pointed by other commentors) method of thinking
2) They are screaming the highest probable answer they can think of. Magic and heat conduction are not the same in that case. The students know they do not know the answer for sure and they... (read 407 more words →)
I have seen this example before. I actually do not blame the students at all for the following reasons (some taken from other comments)
1) They are thinking out loud, so seeing that some aspects points it could be heat conduction(after all that would be the typical reason for most temperature discrepancies withing an item) then they scream "heat conduction" as an invitation for closer look which is a valid (as pointed by other commentors) method of thinking
2) They are screaming the highest probable answer they can think of. Magic and heat conduction are not the same in that case. The students know they do not know the answer for sure and they... (read 407 more words →)