Children's ideas about the weather

Abstract

Research of students' understanding of concepts in science has revealed that their conceptual understanding about scientific phenomena is often inconsistent with scientific thinking (Driver, 1989). In particular, various studies (Henriques, 2000 & Russell et al., 1993) have examined the notions or 'alternative conceptions' (Dove, 1998) held by children at the primary level about the weather. Within this perspective, this research focuses on the exploration of the ideas held by local primary school children on various scientific concepts related to weather phenomena and how these ideas vary across different ages throughout the primary years. Some of these concepts were also researched by Russell et al., 1993 within the SPACE Project. The focal concepts in this study were: recording weather changes - clouds and rainfall, thunder and lightning, sunny days and wind; weather reports, weather symbols and weather instruments; the processes involved in the water cycle; the effects of weather on people and the environment and the seasonal changes related to the weather. Twelve questions, similar to those used by the Primary SPACE Project (Russell et al., 1993) were used to elicit children's ideas about weather. The interviews were carried out with twenty-four children in Years 4, 5 and 6 from four schools. It has emerged that although most of the children have their own interpretations of these concepts, the elder children are more knowledgeable and their ideas are closer to the scientific view. It has also been found that the syllabus coverage of these concepts contributes to this aspect. Recommendations are given to promote better understanding of concepts related to weather among primary school children.