• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.378-391
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the graph interpretation ability and perception of high school students and preservice secondary teachers in Earth science. We developed two different instruments; one was a graph interpretation ability inventory that consists of 9 graph types with 18 items, and the other one is two questionnaires to explore the participants' perception about Earth science-related graph. The results of this study are as follows: High school students and preservice secondary teachers demonstrated their remarkable ability in interpreting a line graph, but showed their limited ability with the graph of overlapped and directional change, which means the graph interpretation ability was affected by a graph type; two groups participated in this study revealed a considerable difference in the graph interpretation ability depending on the grade level; preservice teachers were superior to high school students in discriminating two graphs, the representation method, which are different with the same topic; and many participants in both groups considered that the property of Earth science graph was considerably different from that of other science subjects, especially in directional change graph, scatter graph, contour map, and domain graph. The results suggest that the effective graph instruction strategies be developed in Earth science learning.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.40 no.6
• /
• pp.639-653
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the science gifted students' level of interpreting the oceanic graph and of understanding the oceanic physical concept through analyzing the Temperature-Salinity (T-S) diagram and inferring the SOFAR (SOund Fixing And Ranging) channel. A total of 106 gifted students in the 3rd year of a science gifted high school, using T-S diagrams published in one of the journals of Oceanology, developed descriptive questions asking the depth of the SOFAR channel to conduct the quantitative and qualitative analysis of graph interpretation ability. As a result, there was a big difference in the level of graphs interpretation and concepts understanding for each science gifted students such as interpreting, modeling, and converting, and exposed their alternative concepts about water temperature, salinity, and density. The results of this study will be used to understand the levels of science gifted students' graph interpretation in oceanology, and to provide the basic data for improving the teaching and learning methods of oceanology and also provide basic data for teaching material development related to graph analysis.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.637-646
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Microcomputer Based Laboratory (MBL) on the middle school students' graphing skill and science process skill in Earth Science classes. MBL teaching materials for inquiry-based instructions were developed to teach five experimental topics related to the middle school 'Earth Science.' Thirty three middles school students participated in this study, and the pre- and post-tests were conducted. Results indicated as follow: First, MBL classes were effective in developing the graphing skill of middle school students. They were efficient both in graph construction and graph interpretation, especially in data transformation. Second, MBL classes were effective in helping participants to use science process skills, especially, in the subordinate areas including formulating hypotheses, making operational definition, graphing, and interpreting data.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.40 no.5
• /
• pp.538-547
• /
• 2019

This study analyzes the conceptual understanding of in-service and pre-service earth science teachers about the H-R diagrams and evolution of stars using conceptual status analysis categories. The results show that (a) many teachers use unscientific language in the Intelligibility range, (b) teachers are categorized in Low scientific inquiry ability related to graph creation and unscientific analogy for scientific concept which is hightly corelated to the possibility of misunderstanding in the teaching process, and (c) pre-service teachers lack the understanding of the secondary science curriculum. It is necessary to develop pre-service curriculum that can be applied to the school site. In the category of Plausibility range, (d) both groups understood the cosmological meaning of stellar evolution. However, pre-service teachers do not specifically explain the mechanism of a star. In the category of Fruitfulness range, in-service teachers come up with educational problems reflecting the academic characteristics of earth science and apply their knowledge to actual problem solving. On the other hand, pre-service teachers show high nonresponse ratio, they do not see the H-R diagram and the evolution of stars as a practical concept. In the analysis process, both groups are found to have many unscientific conceptions about the H-R diagram and evolution of stars. Therefore, it is suggested that caution be used in developing a professional development program of earth science teachers.