Determination of mental models about concepts of melting, freezing and evaporation of the 3 rd and 4 th grade students in primary education

Mental models are cognitive representations used to identify, explain, predict and control any cases. mental model reflects the students' beliefs about the science system seems obvious and has already been discussed. In this case, the mental models need to be determined in order to reveal the current state of the concepts that exist in students' minds. In this context; the purpose of the study is to determine the mental models of the concepts of melting, freezing and evaporation of the third and fourth graders of primary school. For this purpose, the study was carried out with 100 students in the third and fourth grades of a primary school located in the central Halfeli district of Iğdır, which is affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the academic year of 2016-2017. The sample is composed of 100 students (39, 3rd grade, 61, 4th grades) in the third and fourth grades of a primary school located in the central Halfeli district of Iğdır, which is affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the academic year of 2016-2017. Data were analyzed with a rubric developed. According to the results the students had misconceptions about the melting concept and students configured their minds by associating the concept of freezing with nearby circles. Moreover the concept of evaporation is weak at the point of cause-effect relationship. At the end of the study, we suggest to increase the studies of mental models for different concepts in primary education.