Abstract
The purpose of the present paper is to clarify children's conception or their images of the electric current and its changes with age through the reasons they give for the question: why does a flashlight bulb light up in a closed circuit containing a dry cell? The subjects, the third to the ninth grade pupils, were required to fill out a multiple- choice questionnaire. The content of each item extended to the connotative concept of the electric current. The results showed that the subjects held different images as to the electric current, e.g., that electric particles collided with each other, and that electric particles collided with particles of a filament in the flashlight bulb. The changing process of the subjects' images of the current was also indicated in the paper.
