Research Question
Do people understand the causes of high tides?
Hypothesis
Most individuals have misconceptions about the causes of high tides.
Former Research
Finish researchers, Viiri and Saari, conducted a research-based teaching unit on tides because they had “found that no studies dealing with students’ notions of tides had been published and that only one study existed that dealt with the teaching of tides” (2004, p. 463). Viiri and Saari's research provides intriguing insights in to the conceptions of tides. In order for Viiri and Saari to produce a valid teaching unit, they examined the scientific theory of tides, textbooks, and students’ conceptions. Their findings were published in the International Journal of Science Education. In the course of their research, they found that textbooks often generate misconceptions about tides through misleading diagrams and improper use of scientific terms.
After reading numerous articles discussing the many misconceptions of tides, we chose to focus our study on individuals’ conceptions of what causes high tide. Since the publication of their research in 2004, more information about the conceptions about ocean tides has been published. However, their work maintains a prominent position in this area of research and a key resource for this project.