ABSTRACT
THE EARTH Several studies have investigated children's ideas about the Earth as a body in space. Nussbauml and Baxter2 report a possible progression of ideas among American, Israeli and English children, from a flat Earth with limited sky and an absolute view of 'down', to a spherical Earth surrounded by sky with 'down' being towards the centre of the Earth. These findings are supported by the studies of Nepalese children by Mali and Howe3 and of Californian children by Sneider and Pulos.4 The work of Vosniadou and Brewer5 with Greek and American children also cites many similar explanations.
