Mapping Gravitational and Magnetic Fields with Children 9–11: Relevance, difficulties and prospects

This paper presents an investigation centered on a guided conceptual path concerning magnetic and gravitational fields, proposed for children aged 9–11. The goal is to appreciate to what extent the idea of “mapping” two fields of interaction is accessible and fruitful for children of that age. The conceptual target is to link magnetic and gravitational sources with their respective field lines, and then use this linkage to differentiate between the two kinds of interactions. This study shows that the proposed “mapping” and the differences between the maps are accessible to a large proportion of pupils. By contrast, only a minority can differentiate between the two types of interactions: the idea of mere attraction remains dominant and may screen the idea of orientation. Finally, we discuss to what extent these exploratory results confirm the relevancy of such teaching goals and how they inform the design of research‐based teaching sequences concerning this topic.