The act of ‘seeing’ an object is the result of light from any luminous source e.g. Some students also believe that light travels further during the night than it does during the day.Ĭoates (1996), Selley (1996), Toh, Boo & Woon (1999), Tsai & Chou (2002), Skamp (2004) Scientific view An example is this illustration from Walter Scott’s (1893) ‘Heart of Mid-Lothian’. Many drawings of candles and fires in children’s picture books help to reinforce this idea. The brighter the source, the further out light travels. Many students believe that light from a luminous source travels out a certain distance and then stops. Some students also think that light is a property of the object or does not take time to travel from place to place, but is instantaneously everywhere. Other students believe they see objects because they actively look at them or because something comes out of their eye and travels to the object to enable them to ‘see’ it (represented by ray B). Many students hold the notion that light only needs to illuminate an object for it to be seen by their eye (represented by ray A) they do not perceive that it is necessary for light to then travel from the object to their eye. Many believe that rough surfaces don’t reflect the light that strikes them because they are not ‘shiny’ and that light stays on the surface of these objects. An important reason for this is that students’ conscious experiences of ‘reflection’ are associated with mirrors and other shiny smooth surfaces. Most recognise natural and artificial light sources to be emitters of light and many also believe that bright and shiny objects like mirrors are also sources of light. Many younger students do not accept that light must be reflected from the surface of an object to their eyes for the object to be seen. For most students ‘darkness’ means experiencing low levels of light rather than no light at all and so they believe their eyes will always adjust, so that even in total darkness they expect to still eventually be able to see. The complete absence of light is an extraordinarily unusual experience. The everyday world of city students is now so perpetually illuminated that for them the presence of light is often taken for granted. It is rare for students to experience the total and complete darkness achievable in a photographic dark room or a deep cave. For a typical Australian household in 2008, nearly 30% of the household electrical energy used is for household lighting. communication and entertainment technology, living and retail spaces and city streetscapes. Students’ everyday experiences are in a world surrounded by natural and artificial light sources, e.g. Contrasting student and scientific viewsĬontrasting student and scientific views Student everyday experiences.
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