CTS Guide: Behavior, Senses, Feedback, and Response, pp 90-91- Section IV Research Summaries
The Nervous System
Johnson and Wellman (1982): Children and adults, when questioned about the brain and activities that involve the brain, most knew the brain as an internal organ and some regarded the mind as additional to the brain. The brain was regarded as a mental organ necessary for thinking, dreaming, remembering, and knowing facts. However, the brain was not always recognized as needed for overt behaviors. Young children associate the brain with feelings (emotions) but not with senses. Only older children associated the brain with both voluntary and involuntary acts. Elementary age children recognize the brain as needed for many activities. By age 10 most children recognize the brain as helping other body parts function. By age 14 the brain was recognized as essential for all behaviors.
Gellert (1962) and Cary (1985): Elementary age children have little knowledge of nerves.
Plant Responses (Tropisms)
Wandersee (1983): In a study related to photosynthesis, secondary students were asked to draw plant growth on a sunny windowsill versus in a dark cupboard. 90% drew the plant on the sunny windowsill as tall and healthy with some showing the plant bending toward the light. 85% showed the plant in the dark as stunted in growth, with only 11% showing it tall and spindly.