A Study of the Misconceptions about Factors Affecting the Buoyant Force of the Grade 12 Student

The objective of teaching about the factors affecting the buoyant force is for students to gain
an understanding about the relationship of the factors with the magnitude of the buoyancy in the fluid.
This will be the basis for the application in the design and creation of innovations that facilitate. However,
the content is complex, which results in most students having learnt several misconceptions. Consequently,
this research is an examination of 58 students in the 12th grade by using a conceptual test of six questions
consisting of explanations of the reasons for the answers. The results were analysed by arrangement of
the group responses of the students according to the level of scientific understanding applied by
Haidar & Abraham. These results showed that the misconceptions about the relationship between the buoyant force and the density of the object, the volume, and the density of the fluid were 84.49%, 52.58%
and 46.55%, respectively. The results from this survey can be used to create and develop learning
management with regard to scientific concepts in the future.