Children?s Conceptions between Year 3 and Year 6 in the Kingdom of Bahrain on What Lies under the Earth Surface: A Case Study of their Drawings and Beliefs

The importance of Earth Sciences for all citizens and future decision makers for a better environment locally and globally is increasing. Social responsibility for each individual in the society is one of the main reasons for the growing interest. The focus on mounting about the importance of Earth Science topics and its potential in forming students? conceptions and raising their awareness toward the importance of Earth Sciences, especially, in primary schools. This study attempts to identify children's concepts of Earth inner contents through their drawings, to categorise/classify the concepts for pedagogic purposes and to provide a protocol for children's drawings analysis of Earth's structure. It represents an early stage finding of a case study of 3rd grade and 6th grade students? conceptions about what lies under the Earth surface. The focus is on one school to get in-depth data about the conceptions held by children. The study depends on two data collection methods: children?s drawing of their conceptions and two groups' interviews of children from both grades 3 and 6. As for the sampling of the children to participate in the drawings activity, 60 students are selected randomly from a primary school in Bahrain. Information on their background is collected and carefully analysed. The drawings are categorised and thematised. A follow up interviews is conducted to better understand the themes emerged from the children drawings. Children to participate in the interviews are selected carefully to represent different themes. Initial findings indicates that there is a change in children?s conceptions that is related to their growth in learning. Additionally, some misconceptions are carried over from previous learning stages. Implications on methods of teaching and learning will be drawn to improve children?s conceptions.