• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.268-280
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• 2005

Teaching with laboratory activities in school science, which are distinctive characteristic, is placed from other disciplines fur teaming almost 200 hundred years ago. A number of science educators have suggested that there are rich benefits in teaming from using laboratory activities. At these time, however, some educators have begun to seriously question the effectiveness and the role of laboratory activities. There are some causes related to obscure and vague aims of laboratory activities. The purposes of this paper is to review aims of laboratory activities presented in the literatures through historical overview, and to obtain implication for school science. There are various aims of laboratory activities by a number of researchers. Overall synthesizing, there are ffur domains of aims of science teaching through laboratory activities, (a) science knowledge has two sub-domains; scientific content knowledge and procedural knowledge, (b) nature of science, (c) science attitude has two sub-domain; scientific attitude and attitude toward science, and (d) ability of scientific inquiry has two sub-domain; manipulative skills and scientific thinking. But, it is necessary to continue the following study in order to obtain the aims of laboratory activities agreed by expert community, and setting up of lists of aims of laboratory activities for students to achieve hierarchies of school science curriculums.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.157-170
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• 2004

Students experience science not only through school science lessons but also through various other channels. Science-related facilities, including science museums and centers, are important channels for informal science education. Korea has a number of governmental and private facilities in which young people can experience various aspects of scientific activities, and many of them also provide the programs supporting out-of-school science activities. However, there has been no systematic survey study on those facilities providing out-of-school activities, thus they have not been used effectively as well as their social utility is not fully realized. To this end, in 2002 researchers of this study carried out surveys (1) of the facilities supporting out-of-school science activities and (2) of science programs provided by these facilities. The surveys show that there are approximately 180 facilities supporting science activities in Korea. More than 40% of them are located in Seoul and Gyeonggi areas. Among them, the proportion of special theme science museums was the greatest (37.9%). The facilities supporting out-of-school science activities usually do not target the specific age groups but are intended for all people. The proportion of governmental facilities exceeds that of private ones. 41.8% of the facilities examined in this study run their own science activity programs. Among the 10 categories of the programs, 'science class' type programs were the most common. There were more programs for elementary and middle school students than preschoolers, high school students and adults. The contents of the programs were more related to astronomy and meteorology, the observation of living things and field trips. Despite their high practical potential, the special theme science museums were found to be lacking in relevant programs, which could fulfill their values for informal science education.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.515-526
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• 2013

In this study, we investigated science-related activities in everyday life perceived by elementary school students, and their preference and participation in the activities. We also analyzed the differences by student's gender and interest in science. We developed a questionnaire of what activities elementary school students participated in daily experiences and how they perceived the connections of the activities with science. The questionnaire that was asked to rate the degrees of science-relatedness, preference, and participation of 35 activities was administered to fifth graders. The analysis of the results revealed that they perceived various everyday activities in their home and community as well as school were related to science. They generally preferred and participated in the activities. Boys perceived some activities, such as building things with magnets, Legos, or other toy and tools, more closely related to science, and the degrees of their preference and participation in these activities were higher than those of girls. It was also found that the students who were more interested in science not only perceived more activities related to science but also preferred and participated in the activities more. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
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• v.18 no.2 s.27
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• pp.101-112
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to develop environmental inquiry activities for teaching the 10th grade students in science classes of high school. The activities are developed to perform goals of environmental education for sustainable development. In order to this, activities are sequently organized in order of context of laboratory, field, and problem solving in respect of one learning topic. The object of inquiry activities in laboratory context is understanding concepts related environment and environmental pollution. The inquiry activities in field context have an object of attaining good awareness and attitude toward environment. Throughout the activities in probem solving context students are expected to have a mind of participating in environmental issues. The activities are designed to learn and use integrated science knowledge in many domains. Some activities are intended to utilize MBL(Microcomputer-based Laboratory). The ICT materials, lesson plans, instructional sheets for teaching and student' sheets for inquiry were produced to guide these activities. It is expected that this effort will contribute to cultivate environmental literate persons who have not only scientific understanding but also practical will of environmental issues.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.893-905
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• 2001

Korean students ranked the 3rd out of 32 participating countries in the first cycle of PISA(Programme for International Student Assessment) science field, which assessed 15-years-old students' scientific literacy. PISA developed several variables such as parents' socio-economic status, parents' educational attainment, family wealth, and cultural possession, to investigate the effects of background variables on scientific literacy. On the other hand, motivation and engagement in science study were not given much attention, partly because science was the minor area in the first cycle of PISA. Therefore, PISA Korea developed a series of variables to collect data on students' learning motives and out-of-school activities in science as a national option. The results are as followings. First, Korea was found to be one of the PISA participating countries with the scientific literacy achievement least influenced by parents' socio-economic status, family wealth, and parents' cultural possession. Second, the degree of achievement in scientific literacy according to parents' educational attainment was in a positive correlation, similar to the overall tendency of PISA. Third, the most crucial learning motive for Korean students was their desire to develop scientific thinking abilities or obtain science knowledge. On the other hand, choosing jobs in the field of science or parental expectation was the least important learning motive. In particular, the motive for scientific learning was found to have a positive relationship with the degree of scientific literacy achievement. Therefore, the higher the students achievement, the stronger the motive for scientific learning in order to develop their ability to think scientifically or acquire science knowledge. Fourth, Korean students were shown to participate very little in out-of-school scientific activities other than watching TV programs related to science. Whatever the activities may be, the more actively involved students are in out-of-school scientific activities, the higher their scientific literacy achievement. Fifth, Korean girls were rather passive compared to boys in all areas, including science learning motive and out-of-school scientific activities. The gender difference was especially more pronounced in out-of-school scientific activities with wider gaps in such activities as reading scientific books or articles and visiting science-related web sites.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.144-157
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to analyse the influence of mother's characteristics on elementary school students' attitudes toward science. Elementary school students (N=667) and their mothers (N=681) were selected from three other regions, big city, small city, and country. Attitudes toward science and supports for scientific activities were measured by two kinds of instruments. The instrument for the measurement of attitudes toward science includes three scales: cognition about value of science, affection toward science & science learning, and cognitive participation in scientific activities. And the instrument to measure parents' support for scientific activities includes two scales: indirect support and direct support. This research showed that mothers' various characteristics resulted in a difference in students' attitudes toward science. And there were positive correlations between students' attitudes toward science and their mothers' attitudes toward science and support for scientific activities. Also mothers' attitudes toward science and support for scientific activities affected students' attitudes. Especially, mothers' personal interest in science and her mental and physical supports for children's scientific activities had a close relation with students' attitudes toward science.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 1985

It is well known that high school girls' mean achievement levels in science tests are lower than high school boys' and that fewer women than men are employed as scientists and engineers pursue scientific careers. Many research attributed the sex difference in achievement level in science and the lack of women in science among others, to the experiential differences in scientific activities and the differences in attitudes toward science and scientists. Therefore, the study had its object to examine the sex difference by high school students in scientific experience and attitudes toward science and scientists. The differences in science experiences were identified at eight schools over rural and urban areas in Kangwon province. Science activities surveyed included use of experimental materials and instruments, observation of scientific phenomena, and extracurricular scientific activities. Attitude scale contained the nature of science, scientific research methods and philosophical views held by scientists. The study found sex differences in scientific experiences and attitudes. i. e.: fewer high school girls than boys had experience with scientific activities, especially with extracurricular activities; however, girls had more positive attitude toward science and more active desire to participate in science. Consequently, the study implies that, in order to narrow the gaps between achievement levels for boys and girls, science education should take consideration of the sex difference in experiences with and attitudes toward science.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.1367-1377
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• 2012

Inquiry activity is a major source of student investigation which both of the national curriculum standards strongly emphasize for achieving scientific literacy. The purpose of this study was to examine inquiry activities incorporated in high school biology textbooks used in China and Korea. The inquiry activities were examined with regard to inquiry level and science process skills. Bell's and a modification of Padilla's framework were used in these analyses. Results show that the Korean textbooks were more exclusively occupied by simple inquiry activities - None of them provided activity more complex than level 2 inquiry. In addition, the Korean textbooks had uniformly basic science process skills, whereas their Chinese counterparts gave students some challenges for higher level process skills. Therefore, it cannot be guaranteed that the activities in the Korean textbooks are helpful in guiding students toward a gradual progression to high-level inquiry. Implications for inquiry-based science education were suggested based on the results of the study.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.490-508
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• 2014

The objective of this study is to describe the status of operation of after-school science activities in elementary school and offer suggestions for the activation of such programs by targeting parents who participated in an open class, and examining their recognition of the program. To achieve this, announcement sheets for after-school science activities in 809 elementary schools in Gyeonggi-do were collected to examine the class names, class fees, material costs, and management status of class hours. In addition, 36 parents who participated in an open class were targeted, and their recognition of the program was analyzed using the results of a questionnaire. A draft of the questionnaire was developed by revising and complementing the 2013 customer satisfaction survey of the living science class of the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity. The final questionnaire was completed by consulting 1 science education professor and 12 Master's candidates in science education for advice on the validity of the questionnaire content and terminology. The collected data were analyzed using a statistical program. Based on the results of the study, the following suggestions are proposed for the activation of after-school science activities in elementary school. First, the needs of education consumers (parents) should be identified and reflected persistently to activate after-school science activities in elementary school. Second, a science program that reflects the demand and choice of education consumers (parents) needs to be developed for the continuous activation of after-school science activities in elementary school.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.378-386
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• 2015

This study is to find out that pre-service elementary teacher's the effects of a ecology mentor club activities to the environmental sensitivity and the effects on the environment friendly attitude of elementary school students. This study has been aimed at 25 students of 5th grade in B metropolitan city S elementary school in 2015, B educational University of elementary pre-service teachers 10 people, Elementary School Teachers10 people to apply a ecology club mentor activities to investigate a comment participated in environmental mentor club activities of elementary pre-service teachers and the environmental sensitivity and the effects on the environment friendly attitude of elementary school students. Procedures for this research was the topic for setting ecology club mentor activities of elementary school students, pre-service elementary school teachers receive consultation from field teachers and guide to ecology club mentor activities of elementary school students. Before the ecology club mentor activities, pre-test environmental sensitivity and the environment-friendly attitude of were carried out. After the experiment, post-test of environmental sensitivity and environmental friendly attitude check was carried out. Also, investigate a comment of pre-service elementary teachers participate and guide to ecology club mentor activities of elementary school students. After the experiment results are as follows. First, the ecology club mentor activities of pre-service elementary school teachers are effective to cultivate environmental sensitivity of the elementary school students. Second, the ecology club mentor activities of pre-service elementary school teachers are effective to cultivate eco-friendly attitude of the elementary school students. Third, after ecology club mentor activities of elementary school students, pre-service elementary school teachers now have a very good feeling. Based on these results, suggestions for further research are as follows. First, the variety of ecological club programs target to elementary school students are needed. Second, there is a need for continuing research on the ecology club activities.