Misconceptions About the Water Cycle

Younger students tend to understand the water cycle by focusing on the properties of water. They see the water cycle primarily in terms of freezing and melting. These concrete

thinkers also have a difficult time with the idea of conservation of matter in terms of water vapor and air, making evaporation and condensation particularly difficult concepts.

Additionally, students may understand the water cycle on a local level and not generalize the concept to a global scale or may not understand that water has been conserved

throughout time.

STUDENTS MAY THINK

INSTEAD OF THINKING

The water cycle involves freezing and melting of water.

The water cycle involves evaporation of liquid water, condensation of water vapor, and precipitation (rain, sleet, hail, or snow).

Water only gets evaporated from the ocean or lakes.

Water can evaporate from plants, animals, puddles, and the ground in addition to bodies of water.

The water cycle only includes rain and snow.

Ice in all its forms (sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, icebergs, permafrost) is part of the global water cycle.

When learning about the water cycle, expect to hear many various misconceptions about the water cycle that must be corrected. Some examples are: -That Clouds are made of smoke, pillows, cotton or wool. -Clouds are supernatural events (God, or Angels) -Water is absorbed into surfaces, rather than evaporated into air -When water evaporates it disappears or ceases to exist. -The Sun and Clouds combine to make it rain. -Water come from a tap then you drink it or it disappears down the drain. Misconceptions are formed from children observing whats happening around them. Seeing things like a tap and watching the water go down the drain, a child may start thinking that the tap creates water, as they may not know about plumbing. Also, children may think that clouds are like people, in that they sweat, and the rain is clouds sweating from moving around so much, or being shaken like a sponge.

The best way to change their ideas on the water cycle is not to tell them theyre wrong while telling them the correct answer, but to show it to them and see what they make of it, using activity II. Allow the students to investigate the water cycle for themselves, and link it with their lives and interests. The teacher must also explain the science idea, the language and resources used and how it can be applied in the students lives (Sharp, K. 1998). One way of reinforcing the water cycle would be to have the stages of the water cycled displayed in the classroom. The teacher could go through them with the children, showing them what each one is and putting them in order on a wall for them to see. Electricity 1. Positively charged objects have gained protons, rather than being deficient in electrons. 2. Electrons which are lost by an object are really lost (no conservation of charge). 3. All atoms are charged. 4. A charged object can only attract other charged objects. 5. The electrostatic force between two charged objects is independent of the distance between them.

6. Gravitational forces are stronger than electrostatic forces. 7. Batteries have electricity inside them.
Three common misconceptions about electric circuits are shown below.

8. This figure represents the source-consumer model in which electricity travels along one wire from the cell to the lamp. 9. This figure illustrates a two wire modification of the source-consumer model. 10. This figure depicts a model that is closer to the physicist's model. However, in this model electricity is used by the lamp, causing less current on one side of the lamp. Energy 1. Energy is a thing. This is a fuzzy notion, probably because of the way that we talk about newton-meters or joules. It is difficult to imagine an amount of an abstraction. 2. The terms "energy" and "force" are interchangeable. 3. From the non-scientific point of view, "work" is synonymous with "labor". It is hard to convince someone that more work is probably being done playing football for one hour than studying an hour for a quiz. 4. An object at rest has no energy. 5. The only type of potential energy is gravitational. 6. Gravitational potential energy depends only on the height of an object. 7. Doubling the speed of a moving object doubles the kinetic energy.

8. Energy can be changed completely from one form to another (no energy losses). 9. Things "use up" energy. 10. Energy is confined to some particular origin, such as what we get from food or what the electric company sells. 11. Energy is truly lost in many energy transformations. 12. There is no relationship between matter and energy. 13. If energy is conserved, why are we running out of it?

MISCONCEPTIONS
Students may hold a variety of misconceptions about heat, temperature, and energy. A few common misconceptions include the idea that some objects (such as blankets) produce their own heat. Students may believe this because they have experienced feeling warmer after covering themselves with a blanket or putting on a sweater. Another area of misconception deals with the words hot and cold. Students often believe that heat and cold are different,

and that they are substances rather than energy. Students may also believe that cold is transferred from one object to another their

STUDENTS MAY THINK Heat is a substance. Heat is not energy.

INSTEAD OF THINKING Heat is energy.

Temperature is a property of a particular material or object. (For example, students may believe that metal is naturally cooler than plastic.)

Temperature is not a property of materials or objects. Object temperature.

The temperature of an object depends on its size.

Temperature does not depend on size.

Heat and cold are different.

Cold is the absence of heat. Heat and cold can be thought of a

Cold is transferred from one object to another.

Heat is transferred from one object to another. Heat moves f

Objects that keep things warm (sweaters, mittens, blankets) are sources of heat.

Objects keep things warm by trapping heat.

Some substances (flour, sugar, air) cannot heat up.

All substances heat up, although some gain heat more easily

Objects that readily become warm (conductors of heat) do not readily become cold.

Conductors gain (and lose) heat easily.

experience with coolers and refrigerators seems to confirm this misconception. The web page Childrens Misconceptions about Science provides a list of misconceptions in several areas of physical science, including heat and temperature. Here are a few that you might hear in your own classroom: