Light, Sound & Waves - PIPER Evidence Review of children's ideas

	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1		Light, Sound & Waves
2	A list of children's ideas about Energy & Thermal, compiled by Professor Robin Millar from the University of York, using Rosalind Driver et al.’s Making Sense of Secondary Science, Randall Knight’s Five Easy Lessons, The Victoria Science Continuum, and his own knowledge of the area. These are matched to direct quotes from the literature in each tab of this spreadsheet. The "count" indicates how many times a match has been found.
3					For AM use, please ignore...
4	Count	Code	Idea	Notes (from Robin)	Characters	Short enough?	Imported?
5	5	lsw1	Many students have vague ideas about what light is as they have not been given accurate, age-appropriate definitions, or have been given conflicting definitions.	Some students believe that the word ‘light’ refers to a source (e.g. a light bulb) ; some students believe that the word ‘light’ refers to an effect (e.g. a patch of light); some students believe that the word ‘light’ refers to state (e.g. brightness) (these misconceptions are common for ages 10 - 11)	161	NO
6	3	lsw2	Many students do not recognise light as an entity between a source and the effect it produces (age < 13)		104	YES
7	4	lsw3	Many students struggle to understand that a light ray is (most often) just a model used to depict the behaviour of light.	This confusion between the micro and macro is fuelled by the use of ray boxes & lasers in practical work related to optics.	121	NO
8	3	lsw4	Some students consider darkness as important a concept as light e.g. shadows can exist on their own.	Children may devise their own theories related to this; to make sense of why you only see shadows in the light e.g. shadows hide inside objects, until light pushes it away from the object on to the wall or ground.	100	YES
9	3	lsw5	Some students believe shadows are a reflection (or a 'dark reflection') of an object and therefore always expect the shape of a shadow to be the same shape as the object.		170	NO
10	0	lsw6	Students can often list many examples of primary light sources but struggle to identify secondary sources.		106	YES
11	3	lsw7	Some students depict light around sources with short lines, this may be because they understand that light is needed to illuminate objects, but believe it stays near the illuminated object [like an aura of halo], or because they think it cannot travel very far from the source.		277	NO
12	3	lsw8	When constructing ray diagrams or when asked to draw the path of light students rarely draw the lines from source to object.		124	NO
13	1	lsw9	Students make differing psychological associations with light which they may use to explain its nature or origin (e.g. 'happiness brings light').		145	NO
14	0	lsw10	Some students hold the belief that shadows only occur in bright light.		70	YES
15	2	lsw11	Many students will be familiar with light being described in 'parts' or 'bits' (e.g. 'that bit of light') and being contained to specific areas, as a consequence some students may consider light as a static entity with fixed dimensions and/or some students may not think light travels at all.		292	NO
16	4	lsw12	Some students consider light as separate from seeing (e.g. the presence of light causes a room to be lit up, but it doesn't need to go into the eyes).		150	NO
17	2	lsw13	Some students believe light is intentionally designed to allow us to see.		73	YES
18	1	lsw14	Some students believe light has different modes or kinds (e.g. natural or electric) and sometimes even that these different 'kinds' of light in different circumstances can behave differently.	For example some students do not consider light rays to be the same as 'ordinary light’; similarly they may distinguish light from a given source from 'daylight'. As a result students give differing explanations for how objects are visible in daylight to how they are visible under a lamp.	191	NO
19	1	lsw15	Some younger students may consider light as only a property of large conspicuous luminous objects.		98	YES
20	2	lsw16	Some students may think light is projected from a source.		57	YES
21	1	lsw17	Some students think that light transports colours.		50	YES
22	2	lsw18	Some students consider light as only going from A to B like a wire stretching from A to B and/or consider light as having strands like a rope.	These misconceptions are often fuelled by the ray diagram depiction of light -- see lsw4.	143	NO
23	1	lsw19	Many students believe that light can travel further at night than in the daylight.		82	YES
24	0	lsw20	Many students find anticipating where the shadow of a separate object will fall harder than guessing where their own shadow falls.		130	NO
25	2	lsw21	Some students may believe light can change direction or travel a curved path without anything externally influencing it.		120	NO
26	8	lsw22	Many students do not fully understand--and therefore cannot depict--the connection between a light source, an object, and the eye looking at the object to describe a mechanism for sight.	Some students will describe vision without considering any connection between an eye and an object. Some students believe that light comes to the eye from luminous objects, but goes from the eye to non-luminous objects, whereas Some students believe when viewing a luminous object like a TV, the light comes from the eye. Some students conceptualise something going back and forth between a source of light and the eye. Some student conceptualise an image entering the eye when we see something. Some students describe light coming from the eye to an object as a mechanism for the eye 'seeing' omitting the need for a light source. When there is a light source some students depict/describe light from the source going into the eye and light coming from the eye to the object or light coming from the eye, as well as light from the source going into the object.	186	NO
27	0	lsw23	Students familiar with the phrase 'line of vision/sight' or 'path of vision' sometimes think the word vision refers to a passage from the eye to an object.		155	NO
28	1	lsw24	Some students believe it is contrast with dark which helps us to see.		69	YES
29	0	lsw25	Some students believe our sight goes further when the light is on (link to lsw19)		81	YES
30	1	lsw26	Some student believe light helps, but is not necessary for vision, students sometimes believe it is possible for [all/some] people to see in pitch darkness [an idea more prevalent among city dwellers than the country] or cats to see in pitch darkness.		251	NO
31	3	lsw27	Some pupils have an understanding of how a reflective object like a mirror interacts with light and the eye, but not how unreflective objects like a book.		154	NO
32	3	lsw28	Some pupils may intuitively link vision with brain activity but some may not.		77	YES
33	0	lsw29	Some pupils may believe the lens in the eye works via a different mechanism from a glass lens.		94	YES
34	2	lsw30	Some students think that light stays on a mirror during reflection.	Common for students aged 13-15.	67	YES
35	1	lsw31	Many students cannot correctly define 'an image’ some student believe images made by lenses can be in two places and/or lenses are not necessary to form images e.g. all objects will form an image		195	NO
36	2	lsw32	Some students believe a lens will not form an image if it is not whole.		71	YES
37	2	lsw33	Many students believe light bounces off mirrors, but not off other objects.		75	YES
38	1	lsw34	Some students believe light doesn't bounce off anything (including mirrors).		76	YES
39	0	lsw35	Some students do not believe light can scatter.		47	YES
40	3	lsw36	Some student believe light bounces off things, but this has no relevance to seeing.		83	YES
41	4	lsw37	Some student believe the image in a mirror is on the mirror (rather than behind it).		84	YES
42	1	lsw38	Some students believe moving the observer's position will move the image produced by lens/lenses.		97	YES
43	0	lsw39	Some students attribute the refractive effects of glass and water to the material without recognising the involvement of light. E.g. A pencil in a beaker of water looks bent because the water makes it look broken.		213	NO
44	1	lsw40	Many students (age 13) have an understanding of how coloured filters work, some believe they change the nature of the light in some way e.g. A red filter 'dyes' the white light, or white light is given and carries the colour of the filter.		239	NO
45	3	lsw41	Pupils generally do not intuitively recognise white light is a mixture of colours of light.		91	YES
46	1	lsw42	Many pupils believe that everyone will see the exact same shade of colour i.e. Specific colours are an innate property of an object (eyes help us see this colour).		163	NO
47	1	lsw43	Some younger students confuse the primary colours taught in art with the primary colours of light.		98	YES
48	2	lsw44	Students are familiar with the idea that different materials/objects make different sounds, therefore when asked to explain why an object is making a sound some students will answer by stating a material property, e.g. "It makes a sound because it is made of metal" or "because it is hard" or "because it is the string is tight".		329	NO
49	4	lsw45	Many students do not have a fully understand that sound is caused by vibrations.	Some students believe in the existence of some sort of sound particle. Some younger students when asked to consider an instrument making sound will imply sound is constructed by instrument and released by a person or force. Following this same reasoning they may believe different sounds are made of different types of matter. Some student believe that sound is made by vibrations only in instruments where vibrations can be seen and therefore believe another mechanism is required as an explanation without vibrations. Even if students are aware of the particle nature of gases in the air some will not intuitively understand that the air can carry vibrations and hence recognise sound comes from visible vibrations of an object but not that this vibration is transferred to the air.	80	YES
50	2	lsw46	Many students, even some that understand sound the result of vibrations, struggle to explain the effect of covering an object which is making sound.		148	NO
51	3	lsw47	Students often misinterpret the phrase 'sound goes' for example thinking this means it disappears or moves away from one location in preference for another.		156	NO
52	8	lsw48	Some students think sound needs an unobstructed path to travel at all similar to walking through a crowd, rain stopped by an umbrella or a stream stopped by a dam.
53	0	lsw49	A few students may not think of sound as traveling at all.		58	YES
54	6	lsw50	Many students believe sound can travel through empty space.		59	YES
55	0	lsw51	Young students may think some sounds are only made when they are actively listening (e.g. the tick of a clock).
56	15	lsw52	Some students who have heard sound is 'carried ' through the air may think sound is carried by individual molecules.	this fuels the perception of sound being related to the flow of air.	116	YES
57	11	lsw53	Some students who know sound is carried through the air and air is made of molecules may describe sound as moving forward passed from one molecule to another molecule.	This fuels the perception of sound as a physical entity and not as a vibration of matter	167	NO
58	1	lsw54	Some students that are familiar with the idea that sound is a vibration and the common depiction of vibrations as patterns of waves may consider sound as travelling pattern.
59	1	lsw55	Some students may believe an important factor in hearing is the listener concentrating on the source of the sound (the 'active ear') younger students may think the ear 'seeks' sound.		182	NO
60	1	lsw56	Some students may confuse the ray model of light with sound and therefore consider 'hearing' as a ray going from a source of sound to the ear and back.		151	NO
61	1	lsw57	Many students will not understand that sound can be absorbed by materials and few will explain sound absorption via vibrations (this could extend to other types of wave also).
62	5	lsw58	Many students confuse the effects of changing the amplitude and frequency of a sound wave on the pitch and volume of the sound.		#REF!	#REF!
63	2	lsw59	Most pupils struggle to represent sound accurately, some students will avoid using diagrams to represent sounds, some represent sound as single thing that travels from a source to a receiver e.g. as a single line.		213	NO
64	3	lsw60	Most students think of waves ‘carrying’ material from one place to another as they would think about waves at the beach, and tides coming in and out. If asked to draw the path of one molecule in a water wave, most will draw a wavy line.
65	1	lsw61	Some students find it much easier to conceptualise the motion of a transverse wave compared to a longitudinal one.
66	0	lsw62	Many students think that the amplitude (like wavelength) is in some way proportional to frequency.
67	0	lsw63	Many students think amplitude is the height of the whole wave from trough to crest.
68	1	lsw64	Some students struggle to draw ray diagrams showing refraction when the boundary is depicted as vertical not horizontal if they have been introduced to the concept with horizontal boundaries and vice versa.
69	1	lsw65	Many students think that two wave pulses travelling in opposite directions will permanently superimpose as opposed to traveling through each other.
70	0	lsw66	Many students will be able to conceptualise complete constructive interference/superposition and complete destructive interference/superposition but struggle to identify and represent partial interference/superposition.
71	0	lsw67	Students often confuse the concepts of refraction and diffraction, and some use the image in the question to make this distinction (e.g. ray diagrams are generally associated with questions about refraction).
72	0	lsw68	Some students understand the concept of path difference but will struggle to convert this to a phase difference (this may be related to a lack of competency with mathematical concept of proportion and/or familiarity with units of angles).
73	0	lsw69	Most students do not appreciate that light is the same as other electromagnetic waves in nature and is just the section of the spectrum our eyes can detect.
74	0	lsw70	Some pupils consider each part of the EM spectrum as separate entities ('made of' different things) and struggle to understand the concept of a continuous spectrum.
75	0	lsw71	Most students think EM waves travel at 'the speed of light' in all materials.
76	0	lsw72	Some students struggle to appreciate how EM waves can travel through a vacuum.
77	0	lsw73	Many students confuse alpha and beta sources of nuclear radiation with the electromagnetic spectrum because of the use of the word radiation to describe them both, and knowledge that they can both be harmful to living things.	Generally, students associate the word 'radiation' with negative effects.
78	0	lsw74	Some students confuse microwaves with radio waves.
79	0	lsw75	Some students do not appreciate that infrared is simply heat energy and associate it, similar to UV, with very harmful effects.
80	0	lsw76	A few students confuse electromagnetic waves with electricity e.g. think electricity is an EM wave traveling around a circuit
81	0	lsw77	Many students struggle to identify when to use the cosmic speed limit in a calculation.	Some will even use the constant when asked to find the speed of a wave e.g. if they cannot find either wavelength or frequency in the question they may use the cosmic speed limit to find one of these quantities and then try to substitute these value back into the equation for wave speed to find the 'real' speed of the wave in the question.
82	0	lsw78	Many students will struggle to calculate frequency from a graphical representation of a wave (displacement time graph) even if they are able to calculate it from the number of waves passing a point in any given fixed time.
83
84	Additional misconceptions:				For AM use, please ignore...
85	Count	Reference	Idea	Notes	Characters	Short enough?	Imported?
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97
98
99
100