The fifth grade primary school students' perception of precipitation types and formation

Background/Problem Statement: It has been emphasized by several researchers that subjects about climatology are difficult both elementary and high school students to comprehend. Furthermore, it is stated in the literature that students have some varying alternative conceptions about meteorology. Since there are relatively few studies on students' perception of precipitation types and how they are formed, it is thought that the present study will make a positive contribution to the field. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The goal of this study is to investigate the fifth grade primary school students' perception of precipitation types and how they are formed. Methods: Within the scope of this study, which is of scanning models, were the state and private primary schools in the city of Bursa. In the sample group were 300 fifth grade students selected from the schools in question. The data collection instrument that consisted of six open-ended questions was applied in May 2005. The answers were examined in four categories (right perception, restricted perception, wrong perception and unanswered), which is in a way similar to the one in Platten's study (1995a). Findings/Results: 15.4% of the fifth grade students had a right perception of the formation of rain while 23% of them had it of snow, 19.7% of them had a right perception of hail, 4.7% of them had it of dew and 2.3% had it of hoarfrost. 48.9% of the students were found to have several misconceptions about the formation of rain. 41% of them had misconceptions about the formation of snow, 28.3% of the students had them about the formation of hail, 22.6% of the students had misconceptions about the formation of dew and 53.3% had them about the formation of hoarfrost. Conclusions / Recommendations: It is thought that the concept of precipitation and the formation of precipitation types are too hard to be perceived correctly by the primary school students at first level. There can be found some contradictory items of information in some sources in the literature on precipitation types and formation. It could be beneficial if geographers, scientists and educationalists came together to deal again with and revise the topics of precipitation types and formation, which all contain some highly technical bits of information.