Children's Conception on Evaporation and Condensation

증발과 응결에 대한 국민 학생들의 개념 조사

The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the conception of elementary school students on evaporation and condensation, and then to verify the types of the conception. Forty-eight children from six elementary schools were sampled by stratified random sampling in Seoul and other provinces. They responded to the questionaire and the interview. This study was carried out according to the process of the basic study, the preliminary study, and the main study. The materials collected were classified and analyzed according to the types of children's ideas. The findings of this study were as follows. 1. The vocabulary used to describe the evaporation phenomena varied according to the situations, and the scientific term "evaporation" was more frequently used by the older groups. 2. Most children answered that the last location of water were air/sky/cloud. Air/cloud which represents the scientific conception of the location of water were mentioned by children of all ages. The higher the grade of the children were, the more scientific conception the children mentioned, however. 3. Most children referred to the heat as the factor of evaporation. Wind, on the other hand was mentioned by less than 10% of lower graders, and by about 30% of higher graders. 4. The result of asking children whether they thought it was possible to get the evaporated water back showed that about 70% of lower graders denied the possibility of the water being reversible. About 60% of higher graders. however, recognized that the water will be returned as rain or condensation. This increase may be associated with formal teaching of water cycle. 5. In the ideas of evaporation and condensation, some of the children have supernatural ideas and animism, which are most younger chilren's characteristics.