INVESTIGATING COLLEGE STUDENTS' CONCEPTIONS OF RIVERS

Students use their pre-existing conceptions about the natural world to organize, interpret, and learn new scientific information; therefore, it is important to understand students' conceptions of a geoscience topic before instructing them on that topic. Little research has been conducted on students' conceptions of rivers. To investigate students' conceptions of rivers and the patterns between their conceptions and their demographic and background characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, places students have lived, science classes students have taken), in-depth cognitive interviews were conducted with 25 college-level students enrolled in introductory geoscience classes. During the interviews, students described and drew their conceptions of rivers and river processes. They also completed a written questionnaire about their demographic and background characteristics. Preliminary findings show students hold a mix of scientific and alternative conceptions about rivers. There appears to be no pattern between students' ethnicity and conceptions, but there may be patterns between other background characteristics (e.g., where students have lived in relation to rivers) and their conceptions. Educators can use information about students' conceptions of geoscience topics to develop curricula that modify students' alternative conceptions and strengthen their scientific conceptions.