Preconceptions abound among students in an introductory earth science course

Abstract

Although the Third International Mathematics and Science Study found that most 8th‐grade students like science and feel that they are doing well in it [Geary, 1997], fewer than one‐quarter of U.S. adults can define the term DNA and only one in 11 knows what a molecule is [Augustine, 1998]. Hence the motivated, bright young people described by the study somehow become scientific illiterates despite the best efforts of elementary, secondary, and college‐level instructors.This phenomenon has prompted various investigations into reasons why students have difficulty learning science. One possibility is illustrated by the famed video [Shapiro etal, 1988] showing that most of the graduating Harvard seniors surveyed confidently attributed the cause of the seasons to changes in the distance between the Earth and Sun rather than to the Earth's tilt. They had a clear conception of the answer, but it was wrong.