Children's Ideas About Weather: A Review of the Literature

It is generally accepted that children have their own understanding of how the world works prior to receiving formal science instruction. A great deal of research has been done to determine students' misconceptions related to the physical sciences; less has been done to understand children's ideas in the Earth sciences. This paper reports a synthesis of the existing research about children's misconceptions relating to weather, climate and the atmosphere. The scientifically accepted interpretations are presented in tandem with the children's naïve ideas. When possible, a source of the misconception is also presented. In many cases, students' misconceptions are not addressed in the curriculum, allowing them to exist unchallenged.