1Third Misconceptions Seminar Proceedings (1993) Paper Title: FROM THE PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES TO THE GYROSCOPE DYNAMICS: A PATH THROUGH HISTORY

Abstract: In the works that inaugurated the research on student's alternative conceptions (VIENNOT, 77 and SALTIEL, 78) we have already found similarities and differences between these ideas and some from the conceptions of ancient scientists. Researches developped by the Brasilian Physics Teaching Group at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF), have taken into account different aspects of History in order to understand the way of the students ' thinking. The opposite, concerning to the students, has been used too: from their conception to understand the History of Science. To go through these two ways has been suggesting us some new educational strategies to cause the conceptual changing we have in mind. In a previous work we have studied the students' conceptions about circular motion dynamics (QUEIROZ and KRAPAS-TEIXEIRA, 1991). Searching the History we have found a track coming from a centrifugal "endeavour to recede from the centre " to the centripetal force, too much similar to the same students ' conceptions track. Taking an analogous way, the present work, concerning to the rigid body dynamics teaching, begins in classroom and goes to History. The results from the research with college students ' conceptions about the dynamics of the gyroscope are being presented in a parallel paper in this Seminar (KRAPAS-TEIXEIRA and QUEIROZ, 1993). Our purpose now is to study the development of thi