A Study of 1th Grade High School Student's Conceptions of the Particulate Nature of Matter

This study aims to investigate students’ conceptions and understanding of the particulate nature of matter. A sample including 80 high-school students who studied chemistry at the basic level (1th grade) in 3 school districts of Aslandooz city was selected and participated in the study. In the study, a test comprising five open-ended and multiple choice diagnostic questions, student's drawings, and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data. The findings showed that students have many various and different conceptions ot the particulate nature of matter including nature of matter, condensation and expansion of matter, strike to the piece of metal, origin of color of metal, abilities to use their ideas about matter and random motion of gas particles. In the light of the study, it can be suggested that due to the Ministry of Education’s recent revisions of the science education curricula and instructional materials, further emphasis should be given to the particulate nature of matter and its modeling in related course books.