Motion

1. Belief that objects move in a curved line.

2. When an object is passed through a curved tube, it will continue in a curved motion
when no external forces are acting upon it.
3. The degree of curvature in the tube determines the curvature of the path.
4. A force is somehow acquired that allows the object to continue in a curved path after
it emerges from the tube; the object’s trajectory would gradually become straight as
the force dissipated

Source: McCloskey, Michael, Caramazza, Alfonso and Green, Bert. (1980). Curvilinear
Motion in the Absence of External Forces: Naive Beliefs About the Motion of Objects,
Science, vol. 210(4465), 1139-1141.
 Motion

1. The object would move forward in the direction of the carrier (forward-velocity
response)
2. The object would fall straight to the ground (zero-velocity response)
3. The object would move backward in the opposite direction of the carrier
(reverse-velocity response).
4. The lighter the object the slower it would fall and would be more easily it would
be blown by the wind.
5. An object passively released from a moving carrier would fall straight down,
zero-velocity theory
6. Factors that would effect the object include the speed of the carrier, the weight
of the object, whether or not the object fell quickly and the effect of the air on
the object.
7. The air movement created by a moving carrier dictates the motion of the object
8. A passively released object would move backwards and not forwards when
released.

Source: Millar, Robin and Kragh, Will. (1994). Alternative Frameworks or Context-
Specific Reasoning?, School Science Review, vol. 75(272), 27-34.
 Motion

Three categories were determined for a ball rolling off a table:

1. Novices who thought that the ball would fall straight down
2. Intermediates who thought that the slower ball would fall straight down but the
faster ball would move forward
3. Experts who thought that the ball in both situations would move forward. The
faster ball however would move a longer horizontal distance. The subcategories
for the second and third categories dealt with the type of path the ball was thought
to take (i.e. straight out, parabola-like curve, etc.).
4. The ball would move straight out, curve a little bit and then fall straight down
5. Gravity slows down a falling object
6. The path of the ball is independent of the velocity; the path did not change but the
ball simply moved faster.
7. The force exerted from the faster moving ball would allow the ball to stay in the
air a little while longer.
8. The path of the faster moving ball would become longer since it had momentum;
once the momentum dissipated, the ball would fall.

Source: Eckstein, Shulamith G and Shemesh, Michal. (1993). Development of

Children's Ideas on Motion: Impetus, the Straight-down Belief and the Law of Support,
School Science and Mathematics, vol. 93(6), 299-305.
 Motion

1. An eraser dropped by a man moving would fall straight down and take either a
forward or backward path.
2. It does not matter if the carrier is moving or not, the object would still fall
straight down.
3. Cargo dropped from a moving plan would move backwards.

Source: Hynd, Cynthia R., McWhorter, YeVette J., Phares, Virginia L. and Suttles, C.
William. (1994). TheRole of Instructional Variables in Conceptual Change in High
School Physics Topics, Journal Of Research In Science Teaching, vol. 31(9), 933-946.
 Gravity

1. A ball being rotated in a circle at the end of a string will continue in a curved
path once the string is broken.
2. The force of a ball thrown into the air is always in the direction of the motion
3. The total force was always in the opposite direction of the motion
4. The force on the ball is slowly overcome by gravity which was the dominant
force when the ball was the top of its path, and then the ball would star on its
downward path.
5. The ball comes to a complete stop for a finite length of time during which no
force was thought to act on the ball.
6. The ball came to an instantaneous stop at the top where no force acted on the
ball.
7. The object did not stop but simply changed directions.
8. There is no gravity in space
9. A force is required to keep a satellite, etc. moving in an orbit around the earth.

Source: Berg, Terrance and Brouwer, Wytze. (1991). Teacher Awareness Of Student
Alternate Conceptions About Rotational Motion And Gravity, Journal Of Research In
Science Teaching, vol. 28(1), 3-18.
 Motion

Different explanation types:

1. Function of the Object: focuses on the object responsible for the event.
A. Function of a circle: Students in this category simply stated that the gears
would go around because they formed a circle or because they were made to
go that way.
B. Function of the knob: The students stated that turning the knob caused the
gears to move.

2. Connections as Explanations: Students were identified to use the connections among

the gear elements in their explanations. Some students resorted to this type of
explanation if they were confronted with a detatched gear.
A. Connections-global: It was thought that since the gears were connected to the
connections, all would move at the same time.
B. Connections-cued: Student still corresponds the element with gears. Student
made relations through connectedness and disconnectedness i.e. gears won't
move because they are not attached and conversely, gears will move because
they are attached.
C. Connections-differentiated: As above the child corresponded the connections
with the gears. The child recognized that since each gear was connected in
sequence to another gear, then they would move.
D. Connections-arrangements: Children thought that the gears were not attached
the correct way and the object would move if the gears were connected in
another fashion i.e. straight line, diagonal.
E. Connections-gear teeth: Children predicted that the gears would move because
the teeth of one gear fit into the teeth of another gear.

3. Mechanistic Explanations
A. Action of the knob-gear on the other gears: the children identified a single gear,
namely the one with the knob, as the agent. The gears were thought to turn
because the gear with the knob made the rest of the gears turn.
B. Pathways of transmission of movement: Children did not consider the
possibility that one gear could be acted upon by two different gears or that two
gears could interact.
C. Gear interaction: Children realized that a gear could act upon or be acted upon
by multiple gears.

Source: Metz, Kathleen E. (!991). Development of Explanation: Incremental and

Fundamental Change in Children's Physics Knowledge, Journal Of Research In Science
Teaching, vol, 28(9), 785-797.