Misconceptions - Earth in Space.

1. What sort of shape do you think the Earth is?
2. Have you heard people say that the Earth is round?  Do you think they mean round like a football or round like a CD?
3. Can you draw what you think the Earth is like?
4. Can you draw some people standing on the Earth, for example in England or at the North Pole?
5. Can you draw another person standing on the other side of the Earth, for example in Australia?
6. Can you draw some clouds with rain falling on the people?
7. Why don’t the people fall off the Earth?
8. What do you think gravity is?
9. Where does gravity come from?
10. Why do you think we see the Sun moving across the sky each day?
11. The Sun is a star but why do you think it is so much brighter than the stars we see at night?
12. Have you ever heard of a black hole, maybe on TV or in movies? What do you think a Black hole is?

These questions were adapted (or left out altogether) depending on the responses of the pupils.

The majority of pupils knew the Earth was round and when prompted further would describe it as spherical, similar to a football.  They all drew a circle on the paper provided to represent the Earth.  When coming to draw people on the Earth there was a mix of pupils who drew the people upside down and who drew them the right way up.  The split was about 50/50 with not much correlation between the year group and whether they got it right or not.  When asked why the people don’t fall off the Earth, all answered because of gravity.  Most said they thought gravity was a force that pulled us down, some said it was a magnetic force.  A few said they thought gravity came from the centre of the Earth, but most didn’t know.

In response to being asked why the sun appears to move across the sky each day, most said it was because the Earth is spinning but some thought it was because the Earth is orbiting the sun.  A few correctly said that the sun appears brighter than all the other stars because it was closer, while others thought it was because the Sun was much bigger or because it is hotter than all the other stars.  When asked about black holes most had no idea or thought that they are holes in space where you get sucked in and transported somewhere else.

Addressing Misconceptions

• Some misconceptions due to confusion between two concepts (i.e. the spin of the Earth and the Earth orbiting around the Sun).

• Could use practical exercises or demonstrations to show how we know about the Earth in space, e.g. using globes and models to represent the Sun, Earth and people standing on the Earth (as seen in the first astronomy BBS session).

• Websites/CD-ROMs can be useful in demonstrating processes, which we cannot normally observe.

• The most important thing is to provide good evidence that will challenge the misconceptions pupils have.