• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.288-299
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• 2010

Recently, scientific literacy means not only the acquisition of scientific knowledge but also the linguistic ability to participate in a scientific discourse community. Keeping this in mind, this study investigated middle school students' writings about phase transitions of water in air. Sixty seven students at 9th grade (age 15) students participated in this study and wrote two individual short texts. The result of text analysis can be summarized as follows: (1) students had problems with familiar scientific terms such as 'water vapor' and 'steam' as well as unfamiliar ones like 'dew point'. (2) Students described right semantic relations and at the same time wrong ones more in the idea formed from everyday experience than those from school instruction. (3) While students showed action and process centered writing in text about everyday phenomenon, they showed more preference for technical words and nouns in text about school science. This study suggest that students could develop linguistic ability of science from both spontaneous process based on experience and formal and theoretical learning; the former in forming various semantic relations, the latter in technical and abstract aspect of scientific writing.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.160-175
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• 2004

This study examined the knowledge and practices of scientific inquiry displayed by three student teachers and two beginning teachers at secondary levels. Observations using the instrument of OTOP designed by the research team of OCEPT (Oregon Collaborative for Excellent in the Preparation of Teachers) generalized similar teaching strategies of scientific inquiry between student and beginning teachers, such as using group work for students' first hand experience, using concrete materials for experimentation or visual tools for demonstration, using questions for factual knowledge mainly without opportunities to understand how scientific knowledge is constructed. Those scientific inquiry activities were very confirmative ones to follow the steps without opportunities of understanding nature of science or nature of scientific inquiry. However, all participants in this study hold knowledge of scientific inquiry envisioned by the National Science Education Standards [NSES] (NRC, 1996), where students identify their hypothesis, use critical and logical thinking, and consider alternative explanations through argumentation as well as experimentation. An inconsistent relationship between participating teachers knowledge and practices about scientific inquiry resulted from their lack of pedagogy skills of implementing it in the classroom. Providing opportunities for these teachers to reflect on their beliefs and practices about scientific inquiry was recommended for the future study. Furthermore, increasing college faculty interest in new teaching approaches for upgrading the content knowledge of student teachers and beginning teachers was recommended as a solution, since those teachers showed evidence of influence by college faculties at universities in their pedagogy skills.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.299-309
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to categorize specific factors and characteristics of positive science experience by qualitatively analyzing the positive science experience cases in the memories of pre-service elementary school teachers. For this purpose, 101 essays written by pre-service teachers on the theme of 'my enjoyable science class experience' were analyzed. The collected data were analyzed using an inductive analysis method, and as a result, the characteristics of positive science experience cases in the memories of pre-service teachers were categorized into 4 categories and 12 topic groups. Specifically, 'experience of exploratory activities using special materials', such as long-term raising and observation of animals and plants, experiments using edible materials, and using special experimental tools had a positive effect on scientific experience. In addition, 'experience of activities emphasizing scientific inquiry' such as emphasizing observation activities, experiments accompanied by clear experimental results, making activities, and using various materials also had a positive effect on science experience. In addition, 'student-centered activity experience' such as strengthening student autonomy, emphasizing collaboration between students, and performing science activities outside of the curriculum also had a positive influence on the science experience. Lastly, 'positive influence of teachers', such as teachers' encouragement and enthusiasm, helped to positively recognize science.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.35-42
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• 2011

This study examined emergency exit location with the most representing school floor type with a mathematical model that applied optimized algorithm in the field of engineering. Recent school buildings became much more diverse in floor planning than the old days. Nevertheless, architect's approach to building prevention against fire related emergency planning still relies on an personal experience and knowledge. Therefore, since school buildings are much more likely to be exposed to any fire related events, emergency exit planning has to be seriously evaluated with a scientific method. The algorithm, which acquires the number of persons in each spatial type(node) and the minimum physical distance between spatial types(arc), can propose the most optimized emergency exit locations. Consequently, this study compared an architect's fire exit planning with the scientific outcome of this study and suggested the most reliable emergency exit locations.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.368-376
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• 2016

Kimchi is a traditional food in Korea and its function in health is globally recognized. However, as the westernization and simplification of dietary habits, kimchi consumption has decreased. In order to promote Kimchi consumption in children, the kimchi educational contents, "Exploring Kimchi", which employs the scientific experimental activity, was developed. This contents was evaluated on its educational effect through a test trial in an elementary school. A total of 137 5th grade students in one elementary school located in Gwangju Metropolitan City, participated in 3 programs that were carried out for 3 weeks and performed a pre-post survey. As a result, the Kimchi Experience Contents employing the scientific experimental activity showed statistically significant positive effects regarding the benefits of Kimchi consumption, the recognition behavior for expressing the familiarity to Kimchi and Kimchi eating intention. In addition, the amount of Kimchi consumption after applying the contents showed a significant increase compared to before applying the contents.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.353-368
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• 2020

This study analyzed the teacher's perception for influence of behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students on general students in elementary school science class. To do this, we selected the eight elementary school teachers who were conducting the regular science classes including scientifically-gifted students belonging to the gifted education institutes in Seoul and conducted individual in-depth interviews. The analysis of the results reveal that the teachers mentioned seven behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students in general elementary school science classes.: 'excellent in designing and performing experiments', 'playing a leading role in experiments', 'expressing their abundant prior knowledge frequently', 'attempting their tasks with curiosity and persistence', 'displaying scientific creativity', 'often asking scientific questions in detail', and 'expressing their opinions logically'. These behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students had positive effects on general students, such as 'providing them with a successful experience in conducting experiments', 'improving understanding of science class contents', 'developing scientific thinking and reflective thinking', and 'improving their students' positive experiences about science'. However, the excessive learning-driven behaviors of scientifically-gifted students had negative effects on general students, such as 'limiting opportunities for general students to participate in classes', 'conducting passive exploration centered on results', and 'causing conflicts with general students'. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.382-398
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• 2020

This study aims to analyze the relationship between scientific content knowledge of science-gifted elementary students and their expression of scientific creativity, and the characteristics of divided groups according to the levels of their scientific content knowledge and scientific creativity. A science-gifted program was implemented to 33 forth-graders in the Science-Gifted Education Center of an education office in Seoul, Korea. The method of evaluating scientific knowledge was divided into well-structured paper-pencil test (asking specific and limited range of content knowledge of plants) and ill-structured descriptive test (stating all the knowledge they know about plants) to find out which methods were more related to scientific creativity. In addition, in order to find out the characteristics of each group according to the level of scientific content knowledge and scientific creativity, students were required to answer a questionnaire about their own self-perception of scientific knowledge and scientific creativity and how to obtain scientific knowledge. The main results of this study are as follows. First, Both well-structured paper-pencil test (r=.38) and ill-structured descriptive test (r=.51) results of elementary science gifted students were significantly correlated with scientific creativity. Second, As a result of the regression analysis on scientific creativity of science-gifted elementary students, both the knowledge measured by the two evaluation methods have the ability to explain scientific creativity. Third, the students were categorized into four groups according to the levels of their scientific content knowledge and their expression of scientific creativity, and the result showed that the higher the knowledge of science, the higher the scientific creativity. Fourth, the description about self-perception of scientific knowledge revealed that the highest percentage of Type LL students of all 13 students (53.8%, 7 students) answered 'I have little knowledge of plants because I have little interest in them.' Fifth, the description about self-perception of scientific knowledge revealed that the highest percentage of Type HH students of all 15 students (40%, 6 students) answered 'I think my science creativity is high through my experience of scientific creativity. Sixth, the responses to the Questionnaire revealed that 'reading' was the most popular way to obtain scientific knowledge, with 27 out of total 33 students choosing it. In particular, all 18 students from Type HH (high scientific knowledge and high scientific creativity) and Type HL (high scientific knowledge and low scientific creativity) - those with high scientific knowledge - gave that response. On the basis of this research, we should explore practical teaching methods and environment for gifted students to improve their scientific creativity by revealing the nature of the factors that affect scientific creativity and analyzing relationship between knowledge and scientific creativity.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.506-514
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• 2006

purpose of this work was to study the applied effects of out-of-class Chemical Experience Learning (CEL) Programs on scientific process skills and science-related attitude for middle school students. The out-of-class CEL Programs which were developed to make the funny out-of-class chemistry and the exciting science class', included the nature-friendly chemical experiments suitable for natural environment and composed of real life-centered experiences. The out-of-class CEL programs were applied to natural environment through all-day improvement activity. The science club students in D middle school in Busan were selected as the objects of the study consisting of one experiment group and one control group. The out-of-class CEL programs were applied to the experiment group and traditional class method was applied to the control group. The change of scientific process skills and science-related attitudes between two groups were compared and analyzed. And students reaction on the out-of-class CEL programs was investigated. As a result, out-of-class nature-friendly chemical experiments were improved scientific process skills and science-related attitudes of middle school students. Also, more than 70% of students in the experimental group gave positive feedbacks to the out-of-class CEL programs and increased attention, interest, and degree of self-participation in science.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2014

This study aims to investigate the opinions of students who joined the Jeju Scientific Research Academy, a scientific research program with a mentoring system. The 50 middle school students and 50 high school students in the study were chosen as participants after being judged on their research plans. According to the study, students became more confident in research activities and could have a new point of view on research through interaction with a mentor. They were also very interested in the scientific research program of the Jeju Scientific Research Academy and found it helpful to understand the scientific concepts. Therefore the study shows it is necessary to consider actively the introduction of the mentoring system for the scientific research program. The follow-up study should be done to determine which factors influence on the inquiring minds and the understanding of scientific concepts of the students during the experience of the program.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.416-425
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• 2016

As curriculum statements require addressing ethical and social issues which are raised by modern science and technology, the ability to perceive ethical and social issues regarding science is necessary for teachers to introduce socio-scientific issues (SSI) in their science class. The purpose of this study is to explore elementary school teachers' ethical sensitivity on SSI and attempts to give implications for teacher education. To explore the ethical sensitivity in the context of SSI, the revised version of the Test for Ethical Sensitivity on Science (TESS) was used. Two socio-scientific issues (genetic engineering and radioactive waste) were provided to read and write down five possible questions they believed should be considered before reaching a decision. Data was collected from eighty-two elementary school teachers in Korea. To analyze the ethical sensitivity, the responses including ethical considerations were analyzed by situation and ethical issues. The result showed that 81 out of 82 teacher participants provided at least more than one ethical consideration on each scenario of this study. However, not many teacher could raise various ethical issues and situation that ethical issue might occur. There were only a few teaches who could consider all the situations, 'process of scientific research', 'application of science and technology', and 'science influenced by society', that ethical issues might occur. Especially, teachers failed to consider that the ethical issue can occur in the situation when science is influenced by society. Based on the results, we suggest that during teacher education teachers need to experience finding various ethical issues that can occur in the context of SSI and especially considering the ethical issues when science is influenced by society.