Constructing Precursor Models about Buoyancy of Solid Objects at Six Years of Age
Abstract
This paper describes how four six-year-old children construct precursor models and explanations related to the buoyancy of objects during a teaching sequence on this conceptual domain. For data collection the intervention was recorded on audio. The results show that, at the beginning of the teaching sequence, some children are not able to justify their predictions about the buoyancy of some objects, while other use different criteria for each object such as size, hardness, or weight. However, by the end of the teaching sequence, children exhibit a precursor model about flotation in which they incorporate the idea that buoyancy depends on the material the objects are made of.
Keywords
Flotation, Prediction-observation-explanation, Precursor model, Early childhood, Case studyReferences
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