Fachliche Konzepte zum Thema „Schwimmen und Sinken“ im Sachunterricht

Abstract

Over the last decades, studies have shown that the concepts of primary school children regarding the topic of floating and sinking are consistent when it comes to their statements why some objects float while others sink. In a qualitative literature research as well as in a schoolbook analysis we found that the explanation either given by the books or the teachers tend to use the Archimedes‘ principle (buoyancy) more often than explaining it by the comparison between average density of the body and the fluid. This seems to be based on the assumption about the concept of density not being intelligable for children of this particular age group. With the results of our analysis, we challenge this assumption by showing connecting physical ideas that can only be explained by the difference in the average density, e.g., a hot air ballon floating in the air.