Benchmarks for Science Literacy: Chapter 15 THE RESEARCH BASE

4 THE PHYSICAL SETTING

    4G) FORCES OF NATURE

The earth's gravity and gravitational forces in general form the bulk of research related to Forces of Nature. Elementary-school students typically do not understand gravity as a force. They see the phenomenon of a falling body as "natural" with no need for further explanation or they ascribe to it an internal effort of the object that is falling (Ogborn, 1985). If students do view weight as a force, they usually think it is the air that exerts this force (Ruggiero et al., 1985). Misconceptions about the causes of gravity persist after traditional high-school physics instruction (Brown & Clement, 1992) but can be overcome by specially designed instruction (Brown & Clement, 1992; Minstrell et al., 1992).

Students of all ages may hold misconceptions about the magnitude of the earth's gravitational force. Even after a physics course, many high-school students believe that gravity increases with height above the earth's surface (Gunstone & White, 1981) or are not sure whether the force of gravity would be greater on a lead ball than on a wooden ball of the same size (Brown & Clement, 1992). High-school students have also difficulty in conceptualizing gravitational forces as interactions. In particular, they have difficulty in understanding that the magnitudes of the gravitational forces that two objects of different mass exert on each other are equal. These difficulties persist even after specially designed instruction (Brown & Clement, 1992).