Describes a study in which elementary school children received different types of instruction about terminology used in explaining the water cycle. Results indicated that the group of students receiving hands-on instruction demonstrated a better understanding of the terms than did the other groups involved in the study. (TW)

The pencil-and-paper assignment "Represent water in its three states using a model" was given to pupils (n=227) from eighth to twelfth grades. The findings show that the dominant model used was the space filling type; movement of particles was indicated by a minority of pupils; size of the model changed when drawn in different states.…