How Well Do Lower Secondary School Students and University Students in the Faculty of Education Understand “Deep Underground” as the Solidification Depth of Plutonic Rocks?

Key Points

• This research aims to clarify how well secondary school and university students understand the solidification depth of plutonic rocks and associated spatial scale concepts.
• Survey conducted among lower secondary and university education students.
• Focus on understanding of the solidification depth of plutonic rocks.
• Comparison of responses between middle school and university students, particularly those who studied earth sciences.
• Only 33.0% of middle school students and 37.5% of university students selected the appropriate depth range (2-50 km).
• University students with higher earth science coursework had a correct response rate of 54.4%.
• Middle school students tended to interpret 'deep underground' as representing a shallower depth than appropriate.