• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.75-91
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• 2020

The purposes of this study are 1) to develop a pre-education program for teaching the basic concepts of systems thinking and STEAM program based on systems thinking and 2) to investigate the effects of the program on middle school students' systems thinking. The subjects were 4 seventh-graders and 4 ninth-graders in a middle school located in the province of Gyeongsangbuk-do. Data related to students' systems thinking was analyzed using the rubrics developed by Hung(2008). The results were reviewed by experts to verify the validity of the rubrics and the reliability of students' system thinking. In addition, the data analyzed with the rubrics, students' awareness of systems thinking, word associations, causal maps and interviews were systematically analyzed to investigate the effects of the program on students' systems thinking. The findings of this study were as follows: First, a pre-education program and teachers' guidebook for teaching and learning the concept of systems thinking and causal maps were developed. The pre-education program consisted of familiar TV entertainment program-Infinite Challenge (Muhandojeon)-with a theme of Global Warming. Second, a STEAM education program based on systems thinking which was composed of 5 steps: Analysis-Design-Build-Assessment-Systems thinking. The major theme of the program was an air extinguisher. The developed STEAM education program had positive effects on improving middle school students' systems thinking abilities such as understanding systems, relations within a system and system generalization. Therefore, it was concluded that the STEAM program could be instrumental for cultivating students' STEAM literacy with improved systems thinking.