Volume Quantities: An Exploratory Study on How High School Students Deal with Situations of Comparison

This article consists of an exploratory study on how high school students deal with situations of volume comparison. From the theoretical framework of the Conceptual Fields Theory, developed by Gérard Vergnaud and colleagues, we analyzed how high school students deal with situations of solids comparison from their volume, by applying three activities with 51 students from three schools, one of a private network, one of the federal system and one from public school. We observed that most do not understand volume, how quantities in situations of comparison that require of student articulation between frames geometric, numeric and magnitudes. We also see gaps and barriers with respect to the relationship between volume and other concepts such as density, mass and trilinearity of the volume.

Magnitudes and Measurements; Volume; Theory of Conceptual Fields