Matter

Christy Cagle & Sofia Garza

Misconceptions in science, among other things, may come from a number of different sources.  Students may confuse things used in everyday language.  For example, if a child goes to the doctor and blood is taken, he or she may worry that they need the blood to live and now the doctor won’t give it back.  The child does not understand that the body is capable of replenishing what was lost.  Another source for misconceptions is the lack of evidence.  When a child is told they don’t want to catch any germs, what evidence of germs is there to give the child literal proof?  They can’t see or feel germs and therefore may not grasp the concept that they exist.  One other source, of many, is confusion over concepts can create wrong impressions.  An example of this is that a child may understand that things use energy, but also believe that these things ‘use up’ energy. 

The misconceptions that students may have are not easily given up. Children often work hard to process information and arrive at their ideas. It takes just as much work to let those ideas go. Simply pointing out and telling the student they are wrong and what is correct is highly ineffective. To help students move away from their misconceptions teachers need to be aware of what they are. This involves asking open ended questions to assess what the students know about the topic of a lesson, listening and observing, and using direct questioning to find out their reasoning process. From this, teachers should involve structuring experiences in an appropriate learning environment to provide opportunities for students to test their ideas and prove the correct concept to themselves.        

For the purpose of understanding possible misconceptions about Matter, an interview was conducted to give some insight into what they could be.  The student we conducted the interview with is an eight year old third grader.  He attends Widmer Elementary School in the Austin Independent School District and is in the Gifted and Talented program.  We used the same student for our interviews but focused on different topics.  The first interview seeks to find what he remembers and understands about matter in general and then takes a deeper look into solids, liquids and challenging substances.  The second interview dives into gases.

Q:  Are you familiar with matter?
A:  Yes

Q:  Can you please tell me about it?
A:  Matter is anything that takes up space.

Q:  Is there anything else you can tell me about it?
A:  Um.  No.  Wait, it has mass?

Q:  Yes it has mass as well.  What does it mean when something has mass?
A:   It has weight.

Q:  Is everything that exists in the whole universe matter?
A:  Yes      

Q:  Why do you think that?  How do you know?
A:  I don’t know, because everything is something.

Q:  So everything in the universe takes up space and has mass?
A:  Yes.  Well no, wait I remember, no not everything.

Q:  Can you tell me something that might not be matter?
A:  Light.

Q:  Do you mean the light bulb itself?
A:  No, the light that comes from it. 

Q:  What are the basic states of matter?
A:  Solid, liquid and gas

Q:  Ok, what about a solid?
A:  It’s hard and can’t bend. 

Q:  Can you give me an example?
A:  Well, wait, a leg can bend and it’s a solid, so, umm, a dump truck.

Q:  Can you tell me what it means to be a liquid?
A:  It’s like water

Q:  Can you give me an example?
A:  Water (laughs)

Q:  How is it a liquid?
A:  It is wet and you can pour it.

Q:  And gas?
A:  Um.  I don’t remember.

Q:  What do you think it is or means?
A:  I don’t know.

Q:  If you had to guess, what would an example of a gas be?
A:  I can’t think of one.

Q:  How would you classify something like toothpaste or shaving cream?  Solid, liquid or gas?
A:  (long pause to think) They are not a gas.  They could be a solid or liquid.

Q:  In what way are they like a solid?
A:  I don’t know because it doesn’t pour really.

Q:  Ok, what about how they are like a liquid?
A:  Because it doesn’t hold its shape.  You can change it with your fingers. 

Q:  Could they be both?
A:  No. 

Q:  What about sand?  What type of matter is sand?
A:  Solid

Q:  Why do you think sand is a solid?
A:  Because little grains of sand are like tiny rocks.

Q:  Ok, do you think that something could have all three different states of matter?
A:  Water

Q:  Tell me why water has all three.
A:  Because it can change from water to ice and it can also evaporate.

Q:  Ok, that does show changes in the properties but can something be all three different states at
      the same time?
A:  No

Q:  Ok, lets think about a piece of chalk.  Like the chalk you can write on the board with or on
      the sidewalk.  What type of matter is that?
A:  Solid

Q:  What if we were to break it down into a dust, like when you’re writing with chalk it breaks
      down.  You can see the chalk dust on the tray at the bottom of the board or on your fingers. 
      Is the chalk dust still a solid?
A:  No, because then it’s not hard anymore.  You can smear it.

Q:  Which do you think is the heaviest of the three- solids, liquids or gases?
A:  Solids are the heaviest and gases are the lightest.

Q:  Is this always the case?
A:  No because if you have a pillow and a bucket full of water.

Q:  Is the bucket full of water heavier?
A:  Yes

Q:  Can you please draw pictures of examples for each of the states of matter?  An example of a
      solid and one for liquid?  If you can think of any for a gas, feel free to draw that as well.
Drawings:  He drew a crayon and dump truck for solid, a cloud with rain and a puddle of water for liquid and tank of gas and steam for gas. 

     The student had studied matter in recent grades and was able to recall what he learned and convey to us what he understands about the topic.  He remembered quite a bit and there was evidence of a few misconceptions.  To begin, I asked him what matter is.  He responded by saying matter is anything that takes up space and has mass.  When I asked him what it means when something has mass, he stated that it means that it has weight.  At this age, maybe a little younger, it is too early for students to understand there is a difference between mass and weight.  In the fourth activity of the GEMS® guide for discovering what matter is, use the term mass and allow the students to use the terms weight and mass interchangeably.  Learning the distinction between the two will come later in the student’s education.

 
Following the questions about how he defines matter, I asked him if everything in the universe is matter.  At first he said no, then I rephrased the question using the definition he gave for what matter is and he changed his mind.  This is important because some students may truly think that everything that exists is matter, including things such as light, dreams, or sound.  The fourth activity addresses this concept also by providing hands-on opportunities to explore and gather evidence of things that have matter.  The students are then challenged to come up with things that are not matter. 

Next we discussed the three basic states of matter.  He correctly recalled solid, liquid and gas and I asked for a definition and example for each.  He said that solids are hard and can’t bend.  The first example he gave was a leg but changed his answer to a dump truck when he realized that legs can bend.  For liquid he said water and gave the example of water because it is wet and can be poured.  Though he could remember that gas was one of the basic states of matter, he was unable to define or give an example of a gas.  Gases are a little more abstract and the second interview takes a deeper look into his knowledge of and how he perceives gases.  His confusion about a leg being a solid because it can bend shows that he does not understand that some substances contain more than one state of matter.  Taking this into consideration, I began to ask him about some challenging substances.

I asked the student how he would classify substances such as toothpaste or shaving cream.  He was able to tell me how they would be able to fall into the categories of either solid or liquid but wouldn’t allow for them to be classified as being both a solid and a liquid.  This is a common misconception.  As children begin to learn the distinctions between each state of matter, they assume that materials can only exhibit properties of a single state of matter.  The third activity of the GEMS® guide for matter allows children to explore challenging substances and apply the definitions they have learned to decide how to classify these materials and base their ideas on evidence gathered.  Through this activity, students are able to understand that things may neat fit neatly into one category or another and that is okay.  This activity also looks into the idea that granular substances such as sand are solids.  The student interviewed was able to describe sand as a solid and said that this is so because sand is made up of tiny rocks and those are all solids.   Some students may confuse granular substances such as sand because they may understand that one way to define liquids is that they can be poured and you can pour sand.  One way the guide mentions to help with this concept is to help the students see sand from an ant’s point of view.    

Even though he held the misconception that substances can not demonstrate the properties of two states of matter, I went ahead and asked if something could have all three.  Surprisingly he said yes, water.  He explained his answer using water as an example saying that water can be ice and it can evaporate.  He was correct in that water can change into the different phases.  I asked the question again emphasizing that I wanted to know if something could have the properties of all three at the same time and he changed his answer to no.  The fifth activity in the guide helps students with this concept by classifying people.  At this point in the unit, the students have already agreed that people are matter because they take up space and have mass.  Then they share ideas and review the definitions of each state to decide which kind of matter people are.  Students discover the ways people have and are all three states. 
               

Next we discussed what happens when there is a change in the substance such as chalk and chalk dust.  He understands that chalk is a solid but is incorrect in that when chalk turns to chalk dust that is no longer so.  His reasoning is that it doesn’t hold its shape and it can be smeared.  Like granular substances, powdery substances like chalk dust are often considered liquids because they can be poured or the shape can be changed (smeared).  Given the definitions of solids and liquids, powdery substances can easily be confused. The third activity touches base on this by using baking soda to explain why powdery substances are in fact solids.  Even though it takes the shape of its container, each tiny piece holds its own shape.  Even though you can stick your finger through it, you’re actually sticking your finger between each individual piece.  Even though it seems like it can make a puddles, each piece is holding its own shape and so forth. 
           

We also discussed which of the three states of matter is the heaviest.  He said that solids are the heaviest and gases are the lightest.  When asked if this was always the case he said no and gave an example by comparing a bucket of water and a pillow.  Though this student understands this concept, some students may think otherwise.  They may think that solids are always heavier that liquids and liquids are always heavier that gases.  During the fourth activity in the guide, the students experiment with weighing several different substances by checking to see if they have mass.  In doing this, they are able to see that some larger objects could have less mass than smaller objects and gases also contain mass.
           

Lastly, he drew examples of things that demonstrate each of the three states of matter.  For solid he drew a crayon and a dump truck.  For liquid he drew rain and a puddle of water.  Even though earlier in the interview he was unable to give a definition for or an example of a gas, he drew steam and a gas tank.  The gas in the gas tank is a liquid and the second interview touches base on that distinction.
           

The GEMS® guide for matter uses inquiry-based instruction.  By using inquiry to test misconceptions, teachers can foster respect for students and their concept exploration, and their ideas.  Teachers can use misconceptions to provide opportunities to practice scientific process skills and evoke interest in scientific exploration.

Sofia Garza
Matter:  Solids, Liquids & Gases
GEMS Teacher’s Guide for Grades 1-3
Interview and Analysis

            While it is natural for children to have various misconceptions on the topic of gas, it was very clear through this interview that educators just need to invest a little more time in the subject. I focused on the “gas” aspect of the GEMS guide titled, Matter. My main focus in choosing this concept was to gain a broad understanding of how much the student knew about the subject. I was aware of some misconceptions the child might have had, but I wanted to see if there were other things that had not been previously considered. The student is currently a third grader who attends an Austin Independent School District school. My interview was the second of two interviews conducted on the same evening, so there was no need to cover matter at its basic level because he had answered many questions before.
           
Q: What do you think makes leaves blow?
A:  The wind the and the air makes leaves blow.

Q:  What do you think air is?
A:  I think air comes from the wind.

Q: Do you think air is matter?
A: Yes.

Q: Which of the three would air be? Solid? Liquid? Gas?
A: I think it’s a gas.

Q: Well, what makes you think it would be a gas?
A: I don’t know.

Q: Can you give me an example of gas?
A: I think carbon dioxide is a gas.

Q: How would you know if there is carbon dioxide in a room?
A: I’m not sure.

Q: If you walked into a room that someone told you was full of carbon dioxide, how would you know for sure?
A:  I don’t know. I forgot.

Q: What do your parents put into the car to make it run?
A: Gas

Q: Is that a solid, liquid, or gas?
A: I think it’s a liquid.

Q: What is one way to know that the gasoline they put into the car is giving off a gas?
A: I’ve never smelled gas before. I don’t know what gas smells like.
 
Q: Think of the carbon dioxide you gave as an example of gas earlier. How would you know if there is carbon dioxide in a room?
A:  Umm... I don’t know.

Q: What could we use to find this out?
A: Our nose. We could use our nose to smell it.

Q: Do you think gas has mass?
A: No.

Q: Why do you think it does not have mass?
A: It does not have mass because it is not a solid.

Q: Can air be captured?
A: Yes. You can put air in a bag.

Q: Can I move the air from one place to another?  Could air be transported?
A: No.

Q: Why do you say that?
A: You can’t move air anywhere because it’s already everywhere.

Q: Do you think something (anything in the universe) could ever go through the three different states of matter?
A: I don’t understand.

Q: Could something ever be all three things. (Solids, Liquids, Gas)
A: Yes. The rain droplets can be liquid and the water vapor can be gas.

Q: What about the solid?
A: I forgot about that. It’s in the water cycle.

Q: Do you think you could draw the water cycle to help you remember it?
A: Yes.

Q: Do you think you know what the solid is?
A: It’s when the water is hard.

Q: What is it called when the water is hard?
A: Ice. It’s ice.

           
I noticed the student did not encounter any difficulties until it came to the point of discussing what constitutes a gas. He was not sure how to define or even classify gases, so it was not a surprise that he could not give me many examples. The guide covers an activity that would help reduce this dilemma because it exposes children to various types of gases and explains how it is they can detect them. For instance, they mention peppermint extract as the opening activity, and I think this would be an everlasting impression on the children because it is a hands-on activity that they will remember for a long time. When asked how he would be able to determine whether or not there was carbon dioxide in the room, he had a difficult time telling me he would use one of his senses.
While he knew that gas (short for gasoline) was used to fuel a car, he was not able to explain how he would know a car was giving off gas. He simply mentioned he had never smelled gas before. This makes me think that he may believe that all gases have a particular smell. When I spoke to mom, who overheard the interview, she said she was disappointed to hear him answer that. The week before, they bought a new stove, so she said she spent days complaining that she could smell gas. I told her it was a difficult concept to understand for any child since it is so abstract.
            I continued on and asked if he thought gas had any mass. His answer was not surprising to me because it is not something they can not readily see. Students are usually not given the chance to weigh gases. This goes back to activities that can be provided to them so that they can fully understand the idea that gases do have mass. The GEMS guide has a wonderful opportunity that allows students to see their teacher make carbon dioxide with baking soda and vinegar. His misconception that gases do not have mass because they are not solids would not be an issue would he have an opportunity such as this one to refer back to later in his education.
            Another misconception was that the student believed air (gases) could not be transported. He thought there was already air everywhere, so you wouldn’t be able to move what is already there.  An activity that could have addressed this issue would have been the one where students trap the air in the plastic bags and move them around.
The most impressive misconception came at the end when I asked the student if something could ever go through the three states of matter. His answer was headed in the right direction, and he even found a way to rationalize what was wrong into something that made sense. He said rain droplets in the water cycle would be the liquid while the water vapor would be the gas. The student was not sure what the solid aspect would be, so he proceeded to draw the water cycle in an effort to jog his memory. He managed to draw icicles into the water cycle and say that ice is the solid part to it. This student had a basic understanding of the water cycle and how it relates to the different properties of matter. I thought it was interesting that he incorporated ice into the water cycle, and the fact that he stood by his drawing was noteworthy. The important part of that answer was that he understood that water can be in three different forms. He was not asked to talk about the water cycle, but it did help him remember what the solid version of water would be.
            I was pleased to see the student was very knowledgeable about the subject even at his age, but there were still misconceptions I felt should be clarified for him. These are things that can easily be covered with activities provided in the GEMS guide. I believe what this means for science instruction is that it is vital teachers stray away from lectures and textbooks and gear toward a more inquiry based curriculum. These are the types of opportunities that allow children to bring in their own connections to the lesson, and it, in turn, allows it to be a meaningful experience.