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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 6, Issue 1, Article 3 (June, 2005) Suat ÜNAL & Bayram COŞTU Problematic issue for students: Does it sink or float?
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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 6, Issue 1, Article 3 (June, 2005) Suat ÜNAL & Bayram COŞTU Problematic issue for students: Does it sink or float?
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Conclusion and implications
Students are first introduced to the Archimedes principle, buoyancy and other related concepts in the seventh grade. These results show that despite the formal instruction, Turkish eighth grade students still have difficulties in understanding sinking and floating, and have misconceptions about the phenomena as reported in the earlier studies involving primary school students.
Students cannot identify the factors influencing whether an object sinks or floats in a liquid. When deciding whether an object sinks or floats, they consider their mass, or volume instead of density. They also consider irrelevant factors such as whether it has a hole, its size or the volume of the liquid. When these misconceptions about sinking and floating are examined, it can be concluded that the reasons behind students’ misconceptions are their construction of rules or theories by regarding their experiences in daily life, lack of knowledge and overgeneralization.
Results of the study showed that there are eight problematic areas where students commonly have difficulties and misconceptions. These are:
- Effect of the mass of an object on floatation
- Determination of the density of an object
- Effect of the density of an object on floatation
- Effect of the density of the liquid on floatation
- Effect of the volume of the liquid on floatation
- Calculation of the buoyancy applied by the liquid on an object
- Effect of a hole which is on the object on its floatation
- Effect of the size of an object on its floatation
The related literature has a range of reports that indicate students’ misconceptions (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958; Smith, Carey, & Wiser, 1985; Smith, Snir & Grosslight, 1992; Kariotogloy, Koumaras, & Psillos, 1993; Macaroğlu and Şentürk, 2001). It is well known that misconceptions are pervasive, stable and often resistant to change through traditionally organized classroom instruction, and often held by students even after the formal science instruction (Driver and Erickson, 1983). Therefore, studies on misconceptions are important in revealing students’ difficulties in conceptualizing new scientific knowledge and suggesting remediation ways. Teachers need to be alerted to students’ difficulties in conceptualizing scientific knowledge and suggestions need to be made to them regarding more effective strategies for improving classroom instruction. Therefore, the results of this study are particularly significant especially for future studies that would suggest teaching strategies, including activities, to enable students to construct scientific understanding about the eight problematic areas reported above.
Considering the results, such suggestions also can be made:
- Before teaching the phenomena; concepts of mass, weight, volume and the concept of density and their differences should be clarified.
- When teaching sinking and floating, both factors that determine whether an object will sink or float and those that do not should be emphasized in the class.
- By considering that some students’ cognitive skills may not develop in the expected time and they may not understand abstract concept and theories, this phenomenon should be taught in classes or labs through concrete activities.
- This study is the first step of an extensive effort whose aims are to identify students’ misconceptions on floatation, to develop laboratory activities for remediation and to investigate effectiveness of this teaching strategy. In this effort, we developed eight activities to enhance students' understanding of sinking and floating and to remedy students' misconceptions about eight problematic areas reported in the study. One of the activities related to the misconception that mass or weight determines whether an object will sink or float is presented for science teachers, curriculum developers, researchers and the other science educators (Appendix 1).
- It is known that there are alternative strategies or tools for conceptual change such as concept mapping, computer aided instruction and conceptual change texts. Besides concrete laboratory activities, other effective teaching models including other strategies or tools should be developed and presented to teachers for their practice.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank to Muammer Çalık and Alipaşa Ayas for their useful suggestions on the project. Also, we thank to prospective students who participate in the study for their support.
Copyright (C) 2005 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 6, Issue 1, Article 3 (June, 2005). All Rights Reserved.
