The Development of a Science Education Program for Gifted Elementary Students Based on the Biographies of Scientists

과학자를 소재로 한 초등과학영재 프로그램 개발

The purposes of this study were to develop a science program using scientists as the material and to examine the effects of this in teaching science to gifted elementary students. The program included low modules, each of which was devised based on the literature examination of the lives, scientific achievements and contributions of four scientists: Ju-Myeong Seok, Jang-Chun Woo, L. Pasteur, and M. Curie. In this study, the four modules were applied and taught to fifteen gifted children in the 6th grade. After the program was taught to the children, post-questionnaires, examination of the subjects' output, in-depth interviews and classroom investigations were carried out and analyzed by the researchers. The results of the study were as follows. The majority of the subjects showed a considerable amount of interest in the program, participated actively and enthusiastically in the given tasks until they solved the problems, and their output produced a number of novel ideas. The results of the post-questionnaires indicated that the program was appropriate fer the subjects and effective in teaching scientifically-gifted children. Moreover, the analysis of the in-depth interviews conducted with the subjects showed that the subjects had opportunities to think about scientific attitudes, the relationships between science, society and nations, the contributions that scientists can possibly make to society, and the identity of scientists, despite the existence of differences between individual children.