Children's conceptions of the gaseous state, prior to teaching

The conceptions children have about the gaseous state is discussed. It is based upon enquiries and interviews carried out with French pupils of about 11 years of age. Two aspects are considered: the knowledge of the children derived from their everyday experiences, and the spontaneous interpretations of experiments presented to the pupils during the teaching about air and gases. Everyday life gives rise to few problems about air and gas. Apart from wind and draughts, air appears invisible, and leads to few perceptions. However, children often know where air is located. They imagine some erroneous repartition of it and believe it to be in motion in containers as well as in the atmosphere. Such motion is more frequent when a source of heat is present. Pupils’ spontaneous interpretation of experiments designed to teach physical concepts, leads to the conclusion that (a) in relation to gases, pupils aged 11 years have not yet acquired the concept of conservation of matter; (b) pupils sense intuitively that ‘s...