Benchmarks for Science Literacy: Chapter 15 THE RESEARCH BASE

4 THE PHYSICAL SETTING

    4C) PROCESSES THAT SHAPE THE EARTH

Students of all ages may hold the view that the world was always as it is now, or that any changes that have occurred must have been sudden and comprehensive (Freyberg, 1985). The students in these studies did not, however, have any formal instruction on the topics investigated. Moreover, middle-school students taught by traditional means are not able to construct coherent explanations about the causes of volcanoes and earthquakes (Duschl, Smith, Kesidou, Gitomer, & Schauble, 1992).