Mental models of the earth’s internal structure among primary, middle and secondary school students in Chile

Mental models are internal representations or conceptions that students construct as they make sense of their everyday interactions with the natural world. The layers of the Earth are topics covered in the Chilean national curriculum for primary and middle school education. Studies have shown that primary and middle school students hold many preconceptions about earthquakes, mountain formation, and volcanoes. In this study, we analyzed 785 drawings by students from six Chilean schools at six school levels. We developed and validated a rubric to analyze the students’ drawings of the Earth’s internal layers and identify the location of magma within the Earth. Among the main results, most students were found to draw concentric layers without distinguishing their thickness, number, or name. Fifth-grade and eleven-grade students were the most likely to create drawings that reflected the internal structures, albeit without differentiating the thickness of the layers. Most students placed magma in the center or core of the Earth. The study concludes that a possible learning progression begins with a framework theory in which students recognize aspects of their daily lives within the Earth, then continues with a mixed model in which scientific knowledge of concentric layers within the Earth is combined with the location of magma at the center, and ends with a model similar to that proposed by scientists.