Seventh-grade students’ level of understanding some real-life events connected to the concept of “changes of matter states”

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess seventh -grade students’ level of understanding real-life events connected to the concept of “changes of state” in the science curriculum. Among the qualitative research methods, the case study method was used in the study. Seven open-ended questions about the changing states of matter were used for data collection. These open-ended questions were prepared based on real-life events. They were administered to (80) seventh -grade students studying at middle school in Riyadh city in the 1^st semester of the academic year 2017/2018. Descriptive analysis was used for the data analysis. The results of the analysis revealed that most of the seventh -grade students were unable to associate changes of state with real-life events. It has been found that the concepts which are least associated with real life are disposition and freezing, while the concepts most associated with real life are sublimation and melting. The study also concluded that it would be better to teach the science subjects relating to changing states of matter by means of associating them with real life.