Pressure in fluids in the presence of gravity: a mesoscopic approach

After a study on students' conceptions concerning pressure in fluids, we elaborated a short teaching sequence on the statics of liquids, implemented and evaluated for two years among science students in the first university year. The sequence makes use of a model of liquids at the mesoscopic level through an analogy with a set of sponge balls, treated first as mechanical entities, then as a model of elements of fluids. The aims and the results of this experimentation are presented and discussed.