Elementary Students’ Ideas Concerning Fossil Fuel Energy
Audrey C. Rule
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, 116 Swetman Hall, State University of
New York at Oswego, Oswego, New York 13126, [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Forty-two academically gifted and thirty-two
average-achieving elementary students in grades one
through six were interviewed to determine ideas
concerning fossil fuel energy. There were no significant
differences between the responses of the two
populations. Major categories of misconceptions
encountered during interviews included misconceptions
about: configuration or distribution of petroleum
reservoirs, gasoline manufacture and storage, the origin
of petroleum, the importance of petroleum in our society,
petroleum prospecting and recovery; and the nature of
coal and natural gas.
Misconceptions about fossil fuels arise for a variety
of reasons. Students sometimes misunderstand scenes
from movies, televisions shows or cartoons, make
incorrect analogies with more familiar experiences,
misinterpret diagrams in printed materials, misconstrue
the meanings of symbols, or confuse similar-sounding
terms or words with more than one meaning.
Sixty-seven preservice teachers responding to a
ten-question survey to investigate the persistence of
fossil fuel misconceptions into adulthood revealed many
held the same ideas as elementary students, confirming
the importance of addressing younger students' ideas
during instruction.
INTRODUCTION
Energy is a central factor in world economy and politics.
Consequently, energy has also become an important
topic in science education. Students need to understand
energy sources, production, storage and transport,
conservation, and usage so that they can make future
intelligent decisions in voting, consumption, and
recycling. Of even greater importance to our planet are
the environmental changes caused by the mining and
burning of fossil fuels. Comprehension of this complex
issue begins with an understanding of the origin,
composition, recovery, and uses of fossil fuels in energy
production and manufacturing. Because adult
consumers and voters impact political and
environmental practices related to fossil fuel energy,
science educators' task in conveying these energy
concepts well is important.
The Importance of Students' Preexisting Ideas According to constructivist learning theory, students
actively construct meaning from their experiences, using
their existing conceptual frameworks (Wubbels, 1992).
Mental models of how the world works are unique to the
observer and not always easily uncovered. Models may
be inconsistent and students may believe one thing, but
verbalize another (Glynn & Duit, 1995), perhaps in
response to facts they have memorized. Teachers need to
investigate student ideas and find ways to incorporate
these viewpoints into a learning-teaching dialogue.
Student beliefs that contradict those widely accepted by
the scientific community are often persistent and
reappear if not addressed directly.
Eryilmaz (2002), reviewing ideas of Nachtigall (as
cited in Van Hise, 1988) and Brouwer (1984), suggests
these steps for addressing students' beliefs that are
inconsistent with scientific understanding. First, make
sure students are aware of their beliefs, then ask students
to formulate hypotheses with their ideas and test them.
Confront students with cases where their beliefs do not
adequately explain phenomena, ensuring that students
are aware of the conflict. Help students find and
accommodate new understandings, applying them to
new situations to see the power of this information.
Cultivate students' confidence in their new abilities, and
finally, assess their scientific understanding.
In this article, I will use the term "preconception" to
indicate student's beliefs about fossil fuels before formal
instruction on the topic and "misconception" to refer to
those ideas that contradict scientific understanding.
Student preconceptions and misconceptions concerning
energy concepts have been well documented and
analyzed from a physics, rather than geoscience, point of
view (Lewis and Linn 1994, Kesidou and Duit 1993,
Trumper and Gorsky 1993, Kruger, Palacio and
Summers 1992, Boyes and Stanisstreet 1991, Kruger 1990,
Lijnse 1990, Gair and Stancliffe 1988, Solomon 1985, 1983,
Watts 1983, Watts and Gilbert 1983). None of these
researchers has focused on fossil fuel energy
conceptions.
A study of elementary students' preconceptions and
misconceptions about fossil fuels will help teachers
attend to these ideas during instruction. Although, as
students mature and gain deeper understandings of
time, distance, and spatial relationships, some
misunderstandings will be clarified, other ideas will
remain unchanged unless directly addressed. Children
soon grow to become voting citizens who need to act
responsibly on geopolitical issues involving energy
resources and become adult consumers of fossil fuel
energy who need to be committed to its conservation.
Clear understandings of fossil fuel concepts will lead to
informed decisions, affecting our global community and
environment in a positive way.
Henriques (2002), in reviewing the literature on
children's ideas about weather, noted a paucity of
research in children's ideas related to geoscience and
called for more studies in this area. However, a few
studies of student conceptions related to the geosciences
have been published. Schoon (1995) surveyed preservice
teachers for their ideas about earth and space science,
while Sneider and Ohadi (1998) investigated student
ideas about the Earth's shape and gravity. Stofflett (1994),
Kusnick (2002), and Ford (2003) discussed preservice
teacher and sixth grade student ideas related to the rock
cycle and rock formation. Meyer (1987) and Dickerson
and
Dawkins
(2004)
documented
students'
understanding of groundwater, while Bar (1989)
addressed children's ideas about the water cycle. The
current study investigates elementary students' ideas
about petroleum, coal, and natural gas in an effort to
uncover misconceptions to assist teachers in planning
instruction to ensure understandings consistent with the
scientific community. Henriques (2002, p. 206) states,
"Most teachers are far too busy to gather misconception
Rule - Elementary Students’ Ideas Concerning Fossil Fuel Energy
309
data from their students or from the research. If a list of
topic related misconceptions were made available to
teachers, they could review the list when planning
instruction so that students' ideas could be included."
Lists like those in this article can be provided to
preservice and inservice teachers, as well as methods
instructors, to challenge misconceptions college students
still hold and to help them prepare for children's
instruction.
Fossil Fuel Energy and the Standards - Fossil fuel
energy is a concept referred to in several benchmarks in
the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS) "Benchmarks for Science Literacy"
(1993). According to chapter 8, "The Designed World",
part C, "Energy Sources and Use" of this document, by
the end of second grade, students should know that
"people burn fuels such as wood, oil, coal, or natural gas,
or use electricity to cook their food and warm their
houses." By the end of fifth grade, students should know
that "the sun is the main source of energy for people and
they use it in various ways." Further, students should
learn that "the energy in fossil fuels such as oil and coal
comes from the sun indirectly, because the fuels come
from plants that grew long ago." By the end of eighth
grade, students should know that "energy from the sun
(and the wind and water energy derived from it) is
available indefinitely. Because the flow of energy is weak
and variable, very large collection systems are needed.
Other sources don't renew or renew only slowly.
Different parts of the world have different amounts and
kinds of energy resources to use and use them for
different purposes."
The AAAS document (Chapter 4, Part B "The Earth"
and Part C "Processes that Shape the Earth") also sets a
benchmark at the end of eighth grade for students to
know that some mineral resources are rare and the
ability to recover, recycle, or develop substitutes is
important. The formation of sedimentary rocks and
minerals by burial and cementation of small particles
and fossilization of organic remains is also emphasized.
Fossil fuel education supports the elementary school
content standards of the National Science Education
Standards (National Research Council, 1996). The study
of the recovery and uses of fossil fuels, which are crucial
to American industry and national security, is a
component of the Science and Technology Standards for
all elementary grade levels. These standards include
technological design skills and understanding about
science and technology. The study of the origin of fossil
fuels is a component of the Earth and Space Science
Standards. Those relating to fossil fuels are properties of
Earth materials (K-4), changes in Earth and sky (K-4),
and Earth's history (5-8). Analysis of the effect on the
world economy, ecology, and international relations
concerning fossil fuels forms an integral part of the
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives Standards,
particularly those standards addressing types of
resources (K-4) and populations, resources, and
environments (5-8). Student consideration of the risks
and benefits of burning fossil fuels supports standards
that apply to changes in environments (K-4), science and
technology in local challenges (K-4), risks and benefits
(5-8), and science and technology in society (5-8). As can
be seen, fossil fuel energy is addressed in several
standards for elementary students, but states and school
districts ultimately decide what to include in the
elementary science curriculum. Educators teaching
310
about fossil fuels can benefit from understanding
elementary students' ideas in this area.
Purpose of the Investigation - The first purpose
of this study was to investigate elementary students'
fossil fuel energy preconceptions and misconceptions so
that teachers may design instruction to address
misunderstandings
thereby
ensuring
scientific
understandings of these important concepts.
Another objective of the investigation was to
determine the differences (if any) between gifted and
average students' preconceptions and misconceptions
about fossil fuels, stemming from differences in
intelligence. Sternberg (1997), in his triarchic theory of
human intelligence, identified three main kinds of
giftedness:
synthetic,
practical,
and
analytic.
Synthetically gifted individuals are insightful, intuitive,
creative and adept at coping with novel situations.
Practical giftedness involves applying one's abilities to
everyday, pragmatic situations. However, students who
are gifted in analytic skills are able to dissect a problem
and comprehend how the parts work together. Students
who score high on conventional tests of intelligence are
usually very strong in the analytic area. They are good at
reasoning analogically, have large vocabularies,
excellent reading comprehension, and have developed
their mathematical reasoning skills. These are the
students who tend to be admitted to gifted programs
when scores on standardized tests of intelligence are
used as the criterion for inclusion.
How does the thinking of highly intelligent children
compare to the thinking of more typical,
average-achieving children? In the area of science
misconceptions, will the types of misconceptions or their
frequency differ between the two groups? Perhaps
intellectually gifted children will tend to build on the
information they have and extend science ideas beyond
their actual limits, generating more, or more-elaborate
misconceptions than typical children. These questions
will be investigated as children's ideas from two groups
of elementary children in the same school district are
compared: academically gifted elementary students and
academically average elementary students.
Finally, I will analyze the data for age and gender
differences and compare these to previous studies to
show how this investigation fits with the existing
literature.
METHODS
Sample Populations - The sample consisted of two
populations of students from the same large rural school
district of fourteen elementary schools of fairly uniform
lower middle class socio-economic status in the southern
United States. This geographic area is one of active coal,
oil, and natural gas production. Many families in the area
draw their incomes from these and supporting
industries. Additionally, the science curriculum of the
state in which the study took place followed the national
standards in requiring that energy and fossil fuel topics
be addressed in grades one through six. This sample of
students, when compared to elementary students
nationwide, was a biased sample because these students
were more likely to come into contact with fossil fuel
industries (riding by oil pumps, having relatives who
work in well-logging, natural gas production, or local
coal mines) in their daily lives. This means that the
results of this study provide a conservative estimate of
Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 53, n. 3, May, 2005, p. 309-318
Student
Grade
Level
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
Total
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
Total
Black
Females
Black
Males
White
Females
White
Males
Academically Gifted Students
0
1
2
2
2
4
1
1
2
0
0
4
0
1
5
0
1
1
3
6
18
Academically Average Students
0
0
2
0
0
2
0
0
3
0
0
3
2
2
1
1
1
2
3
3
13
1
5
1
4
3
1
15
2
2
3
3
1
2
13
Topic Area
Oil Exploration
Origin of Oil
Use of
Petroleum
Table 1. Demographics of Sample Populations.
students' ideas of fossil fuel concepts, with students
living farther away from oil/gas/coal production being
more likely to harbor additional misunderstandings.
The first sample was composed of forty-two
elementary age students in grades one through six who
were selected at random from a special population of
district students participating in a daylong, once a week,
public school pullout program for the gifted. Students
who qualified for participation in this pullout program
had been identified by their teachers or parents as being
gifted and had additionally demonstrated IQ scores of
130 or greater on a standardized intelligence test. In this
state, students who were identified in this way as "gifted"
qualified by law for special education services; the school
district accommodated their education needs through
this special pullout program.
The second sample population consisted of
thirty-two students from one elementary school of the
same rural school district who were identified by their
teachers as being of average academic ability by
consideration of standardized test scores (40th -60th
percentile scores) and schoolwork proficiency. Because
the interviews took place near the end of the school year,
teachers were well acquainted with their students'
academic abilities. No students who qualified for special
education services were included in this sample. Both
populations of students were of the same lower-middle
class socio-economic status.
Permission was obtained from the school district and
parents to interview all participants in the study.
Demographic data concerning the composition of the
two populations is shown in Table 1. Both sample
populations had equal numbers of male and female
students fairly well distributed at each grade level. The
mean grade level of the academically average population
was 3.8 whereas the mean grade level of the
academically gifted population was 3.3, indicating that
the latter population was somewhat younger.
Importance of
Petroleum
How Gas
Stations Work
World
Distribution of
Petroleum
Origin, Use of
Natural Gas
Origin, Use of
Coal
Questions
What is this picture (show drawing of an
oil derrick)? What is the purpose of the
tower (the oil derrick)?
If we could use magic and slice open the
ground under an oil well, what would
the oil and ground look like? What shape
is it?
How deep is an oil well drilled (in miles,
feet or in relation to the center of the
earth)?
How do people find or search for oil?
How do they know where to look for oil?
What do they use to drill for oil? Are
diamonds used in searching for oil?
Where does the oil come from? What is
it made out of? How long does it take
for something to turn into oil?
What do we use oil for? Can you tell me
anything people make from oil? Is there
anything in your classroom made from
oil?
What is petroleum? Do people eat
petroleum or products made from
petroleum or oil? What is cooking oil
made from?
Is oil important to people? Is oil
important to you?
Does oil ever cause any trouble in the
world? Have people ever fought over
oil?
Tell me what people do when they go to
a gas station to fill their car’s tank. How
is the gasoline stored at the gas station?
Where does gasoline come from?
Can people find oil just about anywhere
on earth? Where on earth isn’t there oil?
Can you find oil under deserts? Under
the ocean floor? In very cold places?
Explain why or why not. How do you
know that?
Do all the countries have about the same
amount of oil under the ground? Who
has the most and the least? Why?
What is methane gas or natural gas?
What do we use it for? What does it look
like? How is it related to gasoline?
What is coal? What do we use it for? Is it
related to charcoal?
Where do we get coal? What is the origin
of coal? How long does it take to form?
Are diamonds associated with any of
these things we’ve talked about?
Table 2. Interview Questions.
Data Collection - Subjects were interviewed
individually and privately in a teachers' lounge,
conference room, or quiet outdoor area. The investigator
used the standardized open-ended interview technique
(Patton, 1990) following the list of questions presented in
Table 2. Students were asked to indicate if they had a lack
of knowledge of, or unfamiliarity with the subject of each
question ("Do you know anything about ___?"), thereby
preventing students from making up responses during
Rule - Elementary Students’ Ideas Concerning Fossil Fuel Energy
311
Misconception
Average
Students
Gifted
Students
Oil is used mostly for lubrication
Oil fills an otherwise empty cave,
pit, hole, lake or stream
underground
Gasoline is stored inside the
rectangular pump at a gas station
People don’t have oil wells in cold
places
Oil is important mostly to people
who sell it
There is no oil under desert areas
Natural gas is the ame thing as
gasoline
Cooking oil comes from petroleum
Oil wells are drilled to the center or
halfway to the center of Earth
America has the most oil in the
world
People can find diamonds in coal
Other than oil spills, oil doesn’t
cause much trouble in our world
Gasoline is not a product of oil
wells; it comes from gas wells
Fossil fules can form in a short time
Fossil fuels have been here since
the beginning of Earth
Oil is evenly distributed over the
Earth
The prupose of an oil derrick is to
direct the oil up in a straight line
An oil well is a place where people
are making oil rather than mining
oil
Oil comes from dinosaurs
Oils is made out of dirt and soil
Coal and charcoal are the same
thing and are made of wood
There is no oil under the ocean
floor
Coal comes from petroleum or
asphalt
The purpose of an oil derrick is oil
storage
Gasoline is being mined under gas
stations
Coal formed from animals
There is no oil under forests
“Oil detectors” are used to find oil
Oil comes from coal
Oil comes from acid rain or rain
collecting in puddles
Coal comes from rock
Petroleum comes from rotting
whale blubber
The purpose of an oil derrick is oil
storage
Oil forms from molten metal
13
16
19
14
14
9
2
9
6
9
6
8
4
8
14
6
7
6
7
6
10
6
11
6
9
6
8
6
9
5
11
5
5
5
5
5
5
4
4
4
9
4
9
4
5
4
4
4
5
4
0
2
2
2
3
3
2
1
2
1
0
1
3
1
4
0
2
0
Data Analysis - The data analysis was both qualitative
and quantitative. A mixed methodology provides both
the context of the study and broaden its implications
(Libarkin and Kurdziel, 2002). Interview statements
provided qualitative information on student ideas and
reasoning processes. Coding of student statements, as
described below, provided quantitative data to
numerically compare the two academic populations and
to examine age and gender variables.
Each statement made by a subject in response to each
of the interview questions was coded as (a) a
no-knowledge statement (e.g., "Never heard of it," "I
have no idea," "I don't really know much about that"), (b)
a statement congruent with current scientific thinking, or
(c) a misconception. Some students expressed two or
more ideas in response to the same question. These were
counted as multiple statements. In a few instances,
students expressed both scientifically correct ideas and
misconceptions in response to the same question; these
were therefore counted in two places on Table 4.
Misconception statements were grouped according to
theme. Statements in the above three categories made by
the group of academically gifted students were
compared to those made by the group of academically
average students. Also, responses of younger students
(grades 1-3) were compared to those of older students
(grades 4-6). Data were also analyzed for gender
differences.
RESULTS
Table 3. Most common misconceptions and number
of gifted or average students expressing those ideas.
312
the interview. As students responded, they were probed
for more information as appropriate. The duration of an
interview ranged from ten to twenty minutes. Students
were told the purpose of the interview was to find out the
kinds of things students do and do not know about fossil
fuel energy so that science educators would be able to
better teach these concepts. Other than encouragement to
tell more, or friendly acknowledgement, no value
judgments, comments, or corrections were made
regarding student responses during the interviews.
Student responses were recorded concurrently on paper
by the interviewer, as tape recording of the subjects was
not permitted.
Table 3 contains a summary of the most common
misconceptions voiced by gifted and academically
average students. In general, both groups of students
had very similar fossil fuel misconceptions. Table 4 gives
a summary of the average number of admissions of lack
of knowledge, misconceptions, and number of
scientifically consistent ideas per student for the
sequence of interview questions. Both the average
achieving group and the academically gifted group were
very similar in the mean numbers of statements made in
the three identified categories (no knowledge,
scientifically consistent knowledge, misconceptions).
Boys of both populations tended to voice more ideas
(more correct knowledge and more misconceptions)
about fossil fuels than girls.
Table 5 shows a comparison of younger to older
students from both populations combined. Younger
students made more lack of knowledge responses, fewer
scientifically consistent knowledge statements, and
usually had fewer misconceptions than older students.
Older students made fewer lack of knowledge
statements, and verbalized more correct ideas, but also
displayed more misconceptions. This is consistent with a
review of the literature on weather ideas by Henriques
Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 53, n. 3, May, 2005, p. 309-318
Sample Population
N
Average Students
Average Girls
Average Boys
Gifted Students
Gifted Girls
Gifted Boys
All Girls
All Boys
32
16
16
42
21
21
37
37
Mean no knowledge
statements per
student
8.0 (s 4)
9.8 (s 5)
6.3 (s 4)
7.6 (s 4)
8.4 (s 4)
6.8 (s 4)
9.0 (s 4)
6.6 (s 4)
Mean scientifically
correct ideas per
student
4.8 (s 4)
3.6 (s 3)
5.9 (s 3)
4.7 (s 3)
3.8 (s 3)
5.6 (s 3)
3.7 (s 3)
5.7 (s 3)
Mean misconceptions
per student
6.4 (s 4)
5.4 (s 4)
7.5 (s 3)
6.6 (s 4)
6.1 (s 4)
7.1 (s 3)
5.8 (s 4)
7.3 (s 3)
Table 4. Comparison of fossil fuel interview responses of the sample populations.
Concept
World Oil Distribution causes disputes
among nations
Gasoline is stored in underground tanks at
most service stations
Gasoline is a product of petroleum wells
Cooking oil is made from vegetable oil or
animal fat
Middle East countries have the greatest oil
reserves
The purpose of a derrick is the support of
long drill pipes
Oil resides in pore spaces and small cracks
in rocks
Oil forms in and is mined from the Earth’s
crust
Petroleum originates from ancient marine
life
Energy/fuel is the primary use of
petroleum
Group
Y
O
Y
O
Y
O
Y
O
Y
O
Y
O
Y
O
Y
O
Y
O
Y
O
No Knowledge
76
35
19
5
49
41
30
16
65
46
65
46
57
24
49
38
49
43
19
0
Scientific Ideas
3
43
35
65
32
35
41
57
0
24
0
14
11
19
32
46
0
0
32
49
Misconceptions
21
22
46
30
19
22
29
27
35
30
35
40
32
57
19
16
51
57
49
51
Table 5. Comparison of younger half (grades 1-3) to older half (Grades 4-6) of combined sample populations of
academically gifted and average students.
(2002), who found that children's conceptions became
more sophisticated with age and pre-instruction trends
of Gabel, Stockton, Monaghan, and MaKinster (2001),
who found that older students had more correct ideas
about burning than younger students. The trend in their
study, though, reversed after instruction on burning,
indicating that instruction was more effective for
younger children. This may indicate that early timing of
instruction is important.
Out of the 352 scientifically consistent statements
recorded during the combined interviews of the
academically average and gifted students, 140 (40%)
were made by females while 212 (60%) were made by
males. Boys supplied sixty percent or more of each of the
scientifically consistent statements pertaining to ten
concepts (derrick purpose, coal origin, oil explorers
study rock, Middle East has greatest reserves, oil can be
found under deserts and the seafloor, gasoline tanks are
underground at service stations, fossil fuels were not
present at Earth's beginning, petroleum is unevenly
distributed on Earth, petroleum's main use is energy).
Girls excelled in correct knowledge (65% of correct
knowledge statements made) in only one concept area:
knowledge that diamonds are not found in coal beds.
DISCUSSION
Both groups of gifted and average students interviewed
displayed similar frequencies and kinds of
misconceptions concerning fossil fuel energy. This
finding does not support the original hypothesis that
there would be significant differences between the two
populations of students. A reason for this may be that
fossil fuel energy is an unfamiliar topic to these students
and therefore, they have a general lack of knowledge and
fewer preconceptions in this area than they might have
concerning other, more familiar, topics. An investigation
of a more familiar topic may lead to discovery of
preconception or misconception differences between the
Rule - Elementary Students’ Ideas Concerning Fossil Fuel Energy
313
Question and responses
* Scientifically consistent
1. The main use of petroleum (oil from oil wells)
is:
A. Lubrication of motors and vehicles.
B. Cooking oil.
C. Energy.*
D. Food products.
E. Petroleum jelly and medicines.
F. I don’t know.
Question and responses
No.
No.
6. How long does petroleum take to form?
15
0
49
0
1
2
2. Petroleum (oil from oil wells) comes from:
A. Dead dinosaurs.
12
B. Whale blubber.
2
C. Carbon in rich black soil.
44
D. Ancient plankton and sea life.*
3
E. The beginning of the Earth.
2
F. I don’t know.
3. An oil derrick tower’s purpose (drawing of
derrick shown) is:
A. To support the drilling pipes.*
B. To keep the oil from spilling on the ground.
C. A lookout for overseeing the oil field and
machinery.
D. Oil storage.
E. I don’t know.
4. Underground, the oil (petroleum) looks like:
A. A large cave filled with oil.
B. Drops of oil mixed in with sand and dirt or
filling small cracks.*
C. Molten metal very deep in the Earth.
D. A river of oil flowing through a large tunnel.
4
21
3
3
3
37
10
12
6
7
E. A solid black layer of carbon.
11
F. I don’t know.
21
5. Oil (petroleum) is not found:
A. Under deserts.
B. Under oceans.
C. Under very cold, sub-zero places.
D. Under forests.
E. All of the above.
F. None of the above.*
G. I don’t know.
*Scientifically consistent
3
0
6
7
12
25
24
A. About a million years.*
B. It has been here since Earth’s beginning.
C. A few hours to days.
D. Hundreds of years.
E. People manufacture it from solid rock.
F. I don’t know.
7. When you fill your car with gas at a gas station,
where is the gas coming from?
A. It is stored inside the rectangular pump where the
hose and filling nozzle are attached.
B. It comes from a gas well under the filling station.
C. It is stored in large tanks underground or behind
the filling station.*
D. I don’t know.
8. Do diamonds have anything to do with fossil
fuels?
A. Yes, they are found in coal beds.
20
9
2
14
4
18
B. Yes, they are used in drilling through rock.*
10
C. No.
D. I don’t know.
9. Mark all the world problems in which oil
(petroleum) plays a large role:
A. Pollution of oceans and natural areas.*
B. Air pollution and smog.*
C. Wars between countries.*
D. Global warming.*
E. Oil doesn’t really play a large role in global
problems.
10. Circle the letters of all statements that are true.
A. Coal and charcoal are names for the same thing.
B. Gasoline and natural gas are names for the same
thing.
C. Oil comes from oil wells; gasoline comes from gas
wells.
D. America has the most oil reserves of the entire
world.
E. Cooking oil comes from living things.*
F. Coal formed at the beginning of the Earth.
8
11
0
15
50
2
38
66
61
63
45
1
22
4
9
7
31
24
Table 6. Responses of 67 preservice teachers to fossil fuel questions.
314
Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 53, n. 3, May, 2005, p. 309-318
two groups. Alternatively, perhaps the data indicate that
gifted or not, students of the same grade level tend to
hold similar beliefs. The following discussion is an
examination of some of the major areas of fossil fuel
misconceptions that will provide insights into how they
arise and suggestions for their correction. Abbreviated
demographics follow each student quotation, for
example, "A B F5" means " Average, black, female, grade
5."
Often, texts have diagrams that depict the oil-bearing
layers or formations as solid black volumes. Students
interpret this to mean that there is nothing in these spaces
except oil.
• The tower protects the oil so it won't blurt out like rain
Origin of Petroleum - Petroleum is a complex mixture of
hydrocarbons and other substances that results from the
transformation of the remains of ancient marine
organisms. These decaying organic materials were
buried beneath ocean bottom sediments and subsequent
rock layers during Earth's history. This organic material
underwent chemical change over a period of at least a
million years under conditions of heat and pressure
within the earth. Petroleum migrates through the cracks
and spaces between grains in rock layers and often is
found miles from its original place of formation.
Many students expressed ideas that petroleum
originates as whale blubber or decaying dinosaur
carcasses. The confusion with whale blubber is probably
related to the fact that whale oil has been used
historically for many of the same purposes as petroleum
products including heating and lighting homes. The use
of dinosaurs as symbols for prehistoric eras in toys,
cartoons, and by Sinclair gasoline service stations has
also contributed to the misconception that oil originates
from dinosaurs.
• The oil squirts out to signal there is oil there (AWM5).
• Petroleum comes from whale blubber. I think I've seen
Oil Derrick Purpose - The purpose of this tall tower is to
support, hoist, and lower the long pipes attached to the
drilling bit for boring through rock layers to get to the
petroleum below. Although several students understood
the derrick's purpose, "a drill tower for the long rods"
(AWM6), many had alternate understandings. Some
misconceptions came from misinterpretation of scenes in
movies or shows seen on television:
• Sometimes on movies they have the oil well and it
blows up and oil shoots out (ABF5).
• So that they can direct the oil up through a pipe so it
won't spill out…. I saw it on a TV show (ABF6).
• The oil comes up the tube so it doesn't squirt out all
over (GWM3).
and kill animals like ducks (GBF2).
it on TV (GWF4).
Other misconceptions were reasoned by analogy with • Oil comes from rotting stuff like whale skin. It takes
uses of other towers, such as observation towers, water
about one to three years for it to turn into petroleum
storage towers, or monuments:
(GWM4).
• The oil formed when a dinosaur died -or if it was
under the ocean - when a whale died. And then the
• To get up there and look up over the machinery
(AWM4). Oil is stored at the top of the tower (AWF3).
rotting body turned into oil (AWM3).
• One of those things that points out oil (AWM4).
• Petroleum comes from greasy dinosaur skins that
were buried by mud and rock. A few days or weeks or
Configuration of Petroleum Underground - Although
months after the dinosaur died, their skins became
oil occasionally fills large cracks and fissures in rocks,
kind of "grutty". It gave out and sank into the ground
most petroleum resides interstitially between grains of
as oil. That's why the gas station has a dinosaur on its
sand and other rock particles. Some students had similar
sign (GWF2).
ideas:
• My dad said gasoline came from dinosaur bones that
rotted and turned into gas (GWM3).
• Oil is mixed with other particles. Oil is in a tunnel • I have this robot toy that says when you drive cars,
about a few inches wide (GWM4).
you're driving on dino power. So dinosaurs had
something to do with gas (GWM3).
• Rock is cracked and oil is in the cracks (AWF5).
• Brownish black, little drops in with the dirt (GWF3).
• Oil forms from dinosaurs - from the oil in their skin.
When the dinosaurs took a bath in a lake, the oil
Others, however, thought that petroleum existed in large
rubbed off of them. Thousands of years later,
pools, caves, or as flowing subsurface rivers. This is
people pumped the oil out of the ground (AWM4).
similar to the findings of Dickerson and Dawkins (2004)
when they investigated eighth grade students' Distribution of Fossil Fuel Resources - Because many
understandings of groundwater.
students did not understand petroleum's origin as
ancient sea organisms and coal's as ancient swamp
• A big pool of oil - miles wide and miles thick --inside vegetation, they could not comprehend the uneven
empty space (GWM3).
distribution of fossil fuel resources worldwide. Another
• The oil is in empty spaces down below. They factor that many students did not consider was evolution
sometimes are pretty big. I saw a picture of an oil well of the Earth's surface and climatic change over time.
with the empty space and the black, oil in it in a Some students incorrectly assumed that the surface
textbook (AWM3).
material represents underlying rock and misjudged the
• Black oil… A big enough amount to swim in. As big as depth at which oil is found. This is a common view held
a classroom (GBF2).
by students, as mentioned in Kusnick (2002), that the
• Like a cave filled with oil (AWM1).
Earth is a stable place. Students assume that the current
• There is a big river flowing through a tunnel under the surface conditions have always existed and that
oil well (AWM6).
underlying materials are similar to those at the surface.
Many students expressed doubt in finding petroleum
Many students told the interviewer that they had seen beneath desert areas, oceans, or forests as exemplified by
diagrams that showed the oil in these configurations. these comments:
Rule - Elementary Students’ Ideas Concerning Fossil Fuel Energy
315
recovery, transport, storage, uses, risks, and benefits of
• You don't find oil in really hot places like deserts fossil fuels.
because there wouldn't have been dinosaurs living
there and where there was no ocean for whales, either
(AWM3).
You might not find oil under a desert because it's not
really rich land and it's so dry (GWF5).
There is no oil there in deserts because it would just
spill out because there is no solid rock there - just sand
(AWF6).
There's no oil under the ocean floor because it's too wet
there (ABM5).
There is no oil under a forest because there are so many
roots in the ground. The oil would kill the trees
(AWM4).
Gender Differences - Data collected during this study
indicate that boys have a greater knowledge base in fossil
•
fuel energy. This may be a result of different cultural
exposure
of
males:
"boy"
toys
include
•
cars/trucks/planes (powered by fossil fuels), dinosaurs
(fossil animals), and technical-mechanical toys. These
types of playthings stimulate curiosity and knowledge
•
acquisition in fossil fuel energy concepts and science in
general. Girls outranked boys in correct knowledge in
only one area, that of the non-origin of diamonds in coal
•
beds. This, again, fits with the cultural exposure of
females in our society to playthings that emphasize
maternity, housekeeping, crafts, and fashion rather than
Petroleum Uses and Products - Many students were technical-mechanical concepts.
only aware of one use for petroleum - as lubrication. This
stems partly from a confusion of motor and lubricating Curiosity about How Things Work - Curiosity is a
oil with crude oil, and partly from a lack of familiarity major driving force in knowledge acquisition. Many of
with the origin of such manufactured products as the younger students interviewed presented the position
gasoline, propane, heating oil, plastics, nylon, asphalt, that gasoline came out of the service station pump like
roofing shingles, paints, waxes, and many chemicals. magic and that was all there was to it no need to be
Another confusion exists between cooking oils concerned with its origin, how it was stored and
(vegetable and animal origins) and petroleum. Many transported, or how the pump worked. Several other
children are not aware of the sources of edible oils. students, however, mentioned to the interviewer that
Comments that illustrate these misconceptions follow:
now that these issues had been brought to their attention,
they would investigate them further the next time they
• Oil isn't really important to most people. All it is used went to a filling station.
for is oiling trucks, motors and go-carts (AWM6).
The Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences
• Oil is used in cars and lawnmowers, but it isn't very and Education, in their book, "How people learn: Brain,
important except that it is worth a lot of money (ABF6). mind, experience and school (1999), discuss the
• Oil comes from companies that make cars. They make importance of adults stimulating children's curiosity and
the oil for their cars so they will run. You can get the oil providing learning experiences. "Although a great deal
for frying pans from them. Both oils are made at the of children's learning is self-motivated and self-directed,
same place (GBF2).
other people play major roles as guides in fostering the
• Some foods like Coca-Cola and soft drinks have some development of learning in children" (p.70).
vegetable oil in them and some oil from oil wells. They Metacognition (thinking about one's thinking) is an
add sugar to them so that it doesn't taste like real oil important process in learning: reflecting on one's
(GWM2).
performance and knowledge, planning, monitoring
• Cooking oil might be the same oil that comes from the success, and correcting errors. Metacognition develops
ground. I don't know what else they would make it gradually and is dependent upon experience. Adults can
from (GWF3).
help children develop their curiosity and metacognitive
processes by making connections between new
As illustrated above, several misconceptions hinge situations and familiar ones for children. "Children's
upon English words that have more than one meaning, a curiosity and persistence are supported by adults who
common usage meaning and a scientific definition. direct their attention, structure their experiences,
Confusion of cooking oil and petroleum "oil"; gasoline support their learning attempts, and regulate the
"gas" and natural gas; and charcoal and coal are complexity and difficulty levels of information for them"
examples of this. Watts (1983) first reported this problem (p. 100).
and Gair and Stancliff (1988) state similar observations in
children's understandings of force and energy; teachers Misconceptions Carried into Adulthood - To
can help by raising student awareness of multiple investigate the persistence of the misconceptions
meanings of words and pointing to their uses in context. expressed by elementary students in the nation's adult
population, sixty-seven preservice teachers in the junior
Problems Associated with Fossil Fuels - Most year of their elementary education program at a
students interviewed were unaware of world problems mid-sized college in New York State (mean age = 23.0 s
associated with fossil fuels. Several students referred to 5.8; 57 F, 10 M; 64 W, 3B) were surveyed with a
oil spills as trouble caused by oil issues, a few suggested questionnaire. All preservice teachers in three methods
air pollution from cars, but only two students mentioned classes volunteered to respond individually to the
oil conflicts with Middle East countries. Because questionnaire during a few minutes of class time. These
petroleum resources play such a major part in world preservice teachers, although not from the same fossil
economies and international relationships, and because fuel-producing area as the elementary students in the
increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels attributed study sample, are a population of adults who will soon
to the burning of fossil fuels threaten our global take on the important role of teaching elementary
environment, it is important that teachers build a students science, among other subjects.
background of understanding of the origin, distribution,
The questionnaire contained ten multiple-choice
questions and was designed to include misconceptions
316
Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 53, n. 3, May, 2005, p. 309-318
expressed by elementary children concerning fossil
fuels. The questions and their responses are shown in
Table 6. The results of this survey show that these adults
harbor many of the same ideas as children.
In addition to the ten multiple-choice questions,
preservice teachers were asked to indicate the grade
levels at which they had learned about fossil fuels.
Currently, these concepts are addressed specifically in
the grades 5-8 science curriculum in New York State
(University of the State of New York, 2001) and during an
earth science course in high school. Fourteen of the
sixty-seven stated that they could not recall learning
about fossil fuels at any point during their K-12 years;
however, these individuals indicated that they had
learned about fossil fuels through college courses or the
media (Preservice teachers who did not feel they had
prior knowledge of a question's topic marked the choice
"I don't know" on the survey). The majority of other
preservice teachers indicated that fossil fuel instruction
had occurred in both elementary and secondary grades.
Of particular concern is preservice teachers' lack of
understanding that petroleum currently plays a pivotal
political role as a global energy source affecting Earth's
atmosphere with just a few nations controlling the
largest reserves. Ideas from the questionnaire that
support this include: soils turn into petroleum,
petroleum forms in hundreds of years, petroleum's main
use is lubrication, and fossil fuel use is unrelated to
global warming. Many preservice teachers indicated in
these responses that they did not understand the origin
and long time required for petroleum formation (and
therefore its nonrenewable aspect), the critical role
petroleum plays as an energy source for power, heat, or
transportation, and the possible global environmental
consequences of burning fossil fuels.
Surprisingly, many preservice teachers had little
knowledge of the everyday experience of how gasoline
flows to the pump from storage tanks at a filling station.
Many did not correctly visualize the geometry of oil
underground. Additionally, preservice teachers, like
elementary students, confused the meanings of words
such as coal and charcoal, natural gas and gasoline,
cooking oil and petroleum- crude oil.
CONCLUSION
Although the study samples of elementary students
were limited to populations from the same rural school
district in the southern United States, the ideas expressed
by students may be comparable to those held by other
American elementary students, as evidenced by the
similarity of misconceptions concerning underground
oil configurations and groundwater reserves reported by
Dickerson and Dawkins (2004), the difficulties students
had with conceptualizing changes in Earth
environments over time and below ground, which were
similar to Kusnick's stable Earth prism (2002), and the
similarity to ideas of preservice teachers in New York
State.
The persistence of misconceptions about fossil fuels
into adulthood indicates the critical nature of helping
younger students understand the scientific concepts
involved. Students must understand how fossil fuels
originate to comprehend their nonrenewable nature and
uneven distribution worldwide with ensuing political
consequences. Students need to know the main uses of
petroleum and other fossil fuels to comprehend their
impact on global relationships and ecology. Hopefully,
teachers will make use of the list of common
misconceptions shown in Table 3 in to plan science
instruction that will address students' ideas.
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