The Initial Conceptions for Earthquakes Phenomenon for Moroccan Students of the First Year Secondary College

Abstract

This work proposes initially to identify the initial conceptions of Moroccan students in the first year of secondary college about the notion of earthquakes. The used methodology is based on a questionnaire addressed to students of life science and Earth in Meknes city, before any official teaching about the said phenomenon. The obtained results showed that despite the non-responses, the majority of respondents have less accurate initial conceptions for earthquakes notion, and does not correctly write their answers, they are enough to write snippets of sentences and do not use scientific words. The student’s conceptions seem marked by the earthquakes effects. However, we have identified correlations between the initial conceptions of Moroccan students and those of other French, Turks and Tunisians students.

Keywords: Initial designs, Concepts earthquakes, college Secondary cycle, Correlation.