Visual Abilities and Misconceptions About Plate Tectonics
Duncan F. Sibley September 2005 Journal of Geoscience Education v53 n4 p471
This study, published in the Journal of Geoscience Education, discusses the way that students' drawings of their concept of convergent plate boundaries provided an efficient means of discovering some widely held misconceptions. Over 600 general education students' drawings of continent-continent convergent boundaries revealed common misconceptions. Approximately one-third drew a continent-continent convergent boundary with concave slabs of continental crust as one might imagine two pieces of firm rubber pushed together on a rigid surface. Almost half drew mountains as one might imagine inverted ice cream cones on a rigid plank.