What Kid’s Think

1. What Kid’s Think Student Conceptions About the Water Cycle

2. Investigation • We looked at what students think about rain. • Where rain comes from • What rain does • Where rain goes

3. Key Questions • What can you tell me about rain? • Do you have any ideas on why it rains? • What kinds of things do you think rain does for us? • Where does rain go when it is done falling? • We asked students to draw a picture of their ideas.

4. Researched Children’s Ideas** • 5-7 Rain falls when somebody (God) opens water reservoirs • Clouds made of smoke or cotton wool • (This means that clouds and water unrelated for them) • Clouds are bags of water in sky, when the collide they explode and it rains **Making Sense of Secondary Science : Research into Children’s Ideas

5. Researched Children’s Ideas** • 6-8 Clouds go into the sea and collect (“drink”) water then they move onto other places and give rain • 6-9 Clouds are made of vapor created when the sea is heated by the sun • Clouds are made of vapor from kettles • Sun thought to go into the water

6. Researched Children’s Ideas** • Sun heats the water to a high temperature • Water vapor enters the clouds and later the clouds open to give rain • 7-10 Clouds visualized as a sponge having drops of water • When it rains the drops fall through little holes in the cloud when the wind shakes it

7. Researched Children’s Ideas** • Rain falls when clouds get cold or hot • 9-10 Clouds of water evaporated from puddles and rain falls when clouds become cold or heavy • 11-15 Clouds are created when the vapor becomes cold and rain falls when the drops get big and heavy

8. Researched Student Conceptions • Empty clouds are refilled by the ocean • The sun boils the ocean to create water vapor * Science in the Elementary and Middle School Classroom

9. Conceptions of 1st Graders Student #1 • Rain… • Comes from the clouds • Makes rainbows • Is food for plants • Sometimes it stops “Sometimes it is nice and clouds don’t get full of rain”

10. Conceptions of 1st Graders “ Wind takes water away from oceans and lakes and it goes to the clouds” Student#2 • “The crystals come down from the clouds.” • Water goes into the ground and helps the trees, plants, and grass grow.

11. Conceptions of 1st Graders “ It snows in the winter because snow is cooler than rain. Frozen rain is snow”

12. Conceptions of 1st Graders “ Clouds want plants to grow.” “It rains because the clouds get full.”

13. Websites and References • DRAWING ON THEIR UNDERSTANDING:  USING ILLUSTRATIONS TO INVOKE DEEPER THINKING ABOUT PLANTSby  Shannan McNair, Oakland University and Mary Stein, Oakland University • http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:BBCFhBPdAeYC:www.ed.psu.edu/CI/Journals/2001aets/s6_07_mcnair_stein.rtf+science+conceptions+elementary+rain&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

14. Websites and References • Science Misconceptions Research and Some Implications for the Teaching of Science to Elementary School Students. ERIC/SMEAC Science Education Digest No. 1, 1987. • http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed282776.html

15. Websites and References • Teaching Science to Language Minority Students in Elementary Classrooms by Bernard Laplante • http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:YN-tiW_QKrUC:www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/nysabe/vol12/nysabe124.pdf+science+conceptions+elementary+rain&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

16. Websites and References • Science in the Elementary and Middle School Classroom • http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:eyrvWb_--ywC:www.bamaed.ua.edu/sciteach/ScienceInElem%26MiddleSchool/Ch%25205%2520CEE%2520Sci%2520Concepts.pdf+science+conceptions+elementary+rain&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

17. Websites and References • Making Sense of Secondary Science : Research Into Children’s Ideas by Rasolid Drive, Ann Squres, Peter Rushworth, and Valerie Wood Robinson