• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.525-542
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• 2014

This study was performed to look into the difficulty of students in understanding science stories in 6th grade science textbooks and to analyze those factors. To do this, 6th grader (N=65) were selected from J Elementary School located in Gyeonggi-do Siheung-si as study subjects. 26 science stories in 6th grade science textbooks were classified by field and context (complement of knowledge, science history of scientists, science in life, cutting-edge science technology, environment issues) in which the characteristics were investigated and analyzed. Also, a survey about the difficulty in understanding science stories(26 items) was conducted(65 students) and a semi-structured interview was conducted for students to clarify the meaning of collected data from surveys(4 students). As result of analyzing surveys on science story context in science textbooks and interviews, 4 fields of 'energy,' 'matter,' 'life,' and 'earth' were evenly mentioned. Science in life and complement of science knowledge were mentions most for context and this had relation with the characteristic of science textbooks to provide many opportunities to apply learned knowledge in actual social issues. Reactions of students on science stories were mostly positive that they help studying science, but there was also difficulty in well understanding science stories. Difficulty of understanding context, problems of context suggesting methods, difficulty of science terminology, lack of interest, and etc. were analyzed as factors. Specific causes were mentioned to be description type class, unimportant context, lack of explanation on suggested context, problem of pictures by students.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.241-263
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• 2010

KoFlux is a Korean network of micrometeorological tower sites that use eddy covariance methods to monitor the cycles of energy, water, and carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the key terrestrial ecosystems in Korea. KoFlux embraces the mission of AsiaFlux, i.e. to bring Asia's key ecosystems under observation to ensure quality and sustainability of life on earth. The main purposes of KoFlux are to provide (1) an infrastructure to monitor, compile, archive and distribute data for the science community and (2) a forum and short courses for the application and distribution of knowledge and data between scientists including practitioners. The KoFlux community pursues the vision of AsiaFlux, i.e., "thinking community, learning frontiers" by creating information and knowledge of ecosystem science on carbon, water and energy exchanges in key terrestrial ecosystems in Asia, by promoting multidisciplinary cooperations and integration of scientific researches and practices, and by providing the local communities with sustainable ecosystem services. Currently, KoFlux has seven sites in key terrestrial ecosystems (i.e., five sites in Korea and two sites in the Arctic and Antarctic). KoFlux has systemized a standardized data processing based on scrutiny of the data observed from these ecosystems and synthesized the processed data for constructing database for further uses with open access. Through publications, workshops, and training courses on a regular basis, KoFlux has provided an agora for building networks, exchanging information among flux measurement and modelling experts, and educating scientists in flux measurement and data analysis. Despite such persistent initiatives, the collaborative networking is still limited within the KoFlux community. In order to break the walls between different disciplines and boost up partnership and ownership of the network, KoFlux will be housed in the National Center for Agro-Meteorology (NCAM) at Seoul National University in 2011 and provide several core services of NCAM. Such concerted efforts will facilitate the augmentation of the current monitoring network, the education of the next-generation scientists, and the provision of sustainable ecosystem services to our society.