A Study on Common Misconceptions about Types of Materials and their Components

This paper is a study on common misconceptions of junior high school students about the types of materials and their components. The purpose of this study is to identify the level of misconceptions of seventh and eighth grade students about the concept of element and compound as well as atom and molecule. First time, these concepts were introduced in the seventh grade textbook. Atom and molecule are abstract concepts and their teaching for teachers and learning for students are difficult and complicated. In order to collect information, a questionnaire with 5 multiple choice questions was used. The questions are designed in such a way that the answers show the students' understanding of the difference between the concepts of atom and element as well as compound and molecule. Students' answers were analyzed to assess their understanding and to extract possible misconceptions. Based on the results, most of the students in both seventh and eighth grades have a misunderstanding about the concept of element, compound and molecule.