Making Sense of Secondary Science

1. By Rosalind Driver, Ann Squires, Peter Rushworth and Valerie Wood-Robinson Making Sense of Secondary Science

2. Research Into Children’s Ideas • Microbes • Solids, Liquids, And Gases • Particles

3. Microbes • Bug • Bacteria • Virus • Germ

4. Microbes As Living Things • Nagy’s Study • (370 participants) Ages 5-11yrs old- unaware that each disease is caused by a separate distinct pathogen • Maxted’s Study • 12 and 13 year olds • Bacteria are living but none could use criteria to define the characteristics of a bacterial life

5. Microbes and Disease • Nagy’s Study (British and American) • Children didn’t distinguish between contagious and non-contagious diseases • Barenholtz andTamir • Israeli 15-17 year olds • Students couldn’t differentiate between prevention and cure

6. Microbes and Disease con’t • Maxted • Students said that you could catch a cold by getting cold and wet • Most sample groups also were unaware that antibiotics are for bacterial infections and are useless against viral infections

7. Decay and Recycling • Brinkman and Boschhuizen • 30% of Israeli teenagers said they would eliminate all micro-organisms from earth • 3% would let them stay but only because they are a part of God’s creation, without any part in the master plan

8. Biotechnology • Maxted • Thought bacteria could be useful as dead but no indication about knowledge of using live bacteria for vaccines

9. Solids, Liquids, And Gases

10. Solid State • Stavy and Stachel • Studied Israeli children aged 5-13 yrs old • Research indicated that: • Younger children regard any rigid material as solid • That powders are liquids • By 11, children referred to as powders as being an intermediate state

11. Liquid State • Stavey and Stachel • Children identify liquids as “runny” • Powder is a liquid • Contain water • Less weight than solid; more weight than a gas

12. Gaseous State • Several researchers • Many children view air as “good” and gas as “bad” • Leboutet-Barrell • Studies showed that children 9-13 yrs old think that gases have a negative weight and will make a container lighter

13. Melting • Stavy • Two samples of ice with identical weights • One was melted • Proportions that conserved weight • 5% of 5-6 yr olds • 50% at age 7 yrs old • 75% at age 10

14. Evaporation • Bar • Ages 5-6: impressed by disappearance of material but offer not explanation as to why • Ages 8-10: start to suggest that the liquid goes someplace-back into the solid object

15. Boiling • Andersson (investigated Swedish students) • Boiling water that is heated for an extra 5 minutes • 40% of 12 yr olds said that the water would get hotter • 16% of 15 yr olds felt the same way

16. Particles

17. Particle Ideas about Solids • Dow-explored secondary school pupils • Depicted solid state as an ordered arrangement of molecules • Gave no reason why it held together • Unable to explain incompressibility of solids

18. Particle Ideas about liquids • Dow • Found that misconceptions came from ideas that the liquid state is the halfway state between a solid and a gas

19. Particle ideas about gases • Israeli study-15 yr olds • Explored how students visually represented O2 • Only 10% represented it as many scattered oxygen molecules

20. Particle Ideas about Solution • Holding • 8-17 yr olds: view of dissolving • Sugar in water mixture-draw idea of what it looked like • Prevalent picture was continuous shading throughout-non particulate view • This view peaked at 20% between 10-12 yr olds