An investigation on the development of pupils’ ideas about the rock formation

The purpose of our research is to address the development of the concept of rock formation in the reasoning of children, by collecting the pupils’ ideas about a sedimentary rock bearing fossil molluscs. Here we present the data collected for 40 seven-year-old children, through individual, semi-structured interviews. Children's responses were categorised and interpreted. The results of this investigation indicate a transition from the diversified explanations we previously collected for preschoolers, including anthropomorphic or other fantastic elements, to the explanations based on human action or natural processes, given by seven-year-old children. Some of the scenarios envisaged by the pupils reveal the idea that the natural environment has changed in time.