A volume conundrum : a study of high school geometry students misconceptions of volume of cylinders.

Abstract

This research explores misconceptions of high school geometry students related to the volume of cylinders. Previous research has shown that students often have difficulties remembering the formula and visualizing the figures. This experiment asked high school students to answer problems regarding the volume of cylinders and to take a short survey on how they thought they did on the problems. These problems were then analyzed which showed that the majority of students did not remember the correct formula and that students who did not remember the formula used the circumference formula for a circle instead of the area formula or they created their own formula. From these results, it can be concluded that teachers need to emphasize remembering the basic volume formula and to read problems carefully.