Einsteinian gravitational concepts throughout secondary school

Abstract

Einstein’s theory of relativity is largely thought of as one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century and continues to pass observational tests over 100 years later. Yet, it is Newtonian gravity, a 350 year old formalism proven to be less accurate than relativity, which is taught in schools. It has been shown that Einsteinian gravitational concepts can be well understood by students in both primary and secondary education. In this paper, a cross-section of students from Yr 7 to 13 enrolled in an English secondary school took part in an intervention designed to introduce the idea of gravity from spacetime curvature. The overall aim of this work is to assess the viability of including relativity in the secondary curriculum and to ascertain which year this material would be best placed in. We determine that all year groups where able to appreciate the effects of curvature to some extent. Visual demonstrations aided conceptual understanding at Yr 7–8 level, but this does not have a strong effect on their ideas around the source of the gravitational force. Participants in Yr 9–13 were able to understand concepts beyond those introduced in the demonstrations. However, a deeper understanding of curvature as the source of the gravitational force is not seen until years 12 and 13. We find that those in Yr 13 have the best overall understanding of the concepts introduced during our intervention.