CHILDREN'S UNDERSTANDING OF EVERYDAY NATURAL PHENOMENA: A CASE STUDY OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' MODELS OF RAINFALL

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the children's understanding of everyday natural phenomena. The notion of mental model is introduced to represent their undersatnding. We design to focus on the rainfall process. The method used in this study is the clinical interview. The subjects were 116 children selected from two elementary schools. The subjects included 40 first graders, 36 third graders, and 40 fifth graders. Each subject was asked a series of questions about his or her understanding of the rainfall process within 20 to 25 minutes. The interviews were tape recorded and later transcribed verbatim. The protocol data from the subjects were analyzed to present the construction of mental models for the rainfall process. The results show that at least 81 of all the subjects have constructed wellarticulated mental models. Moreover, we found that four kinds of mental models are typically constructed by the subjects in the understanding of the rainfall process.