• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.271-280
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to investigate how free inquiry activities affects the scientific process skills and scientific attitudes of 5th and 6th of elementary school students. For this study, 265 elementary students from 5th and 6th grade in Seoul were selected. In comparison group 130 students were implemented and to the experimental group 135 students who did not the free inquiry activities were implemented. The result of this study is as follows: First, curiosity was the most affective factor that motivate free inquiry activities and made them select their topics. Most of the students invested for the inquiry activity in less than 3 weeks. They had some help in every stages. Students became interested in free inquiry activities because they learned new facts and enjoyed doing experiments and they wanted to continue for the same reasons. Second, free inquiry activities had little effect on the basic science process skills of the experimental group, compared to the control group at the significant difference of p=0.05. Third, free inquiry activities had considerable effect on the integrative inquiry process skills of the experimental group, compared to the control group at the significant difference of p=0.05. Fourth, the result of the post-test of the experimental group showed that free inquiry activities had no effect on scientific attitudes at the significant difference of p=0.05. In conclusion, free inquiry activities will be much more effective in developing integrative inquiry process skills than in developing basic scientific process skills and scientific attitudes.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.243-251
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of science toy making activities on the scientific interest and the conceptual understanding of elementary school students. In this study, science toy making activities were applied to an experimental group and traditional learning activities were applied to the control group. The science toy making activities comprised thirteen steps and were administered during class. In the scientific interest test, there was a statistically significant difference between the score of the experimental group and that of the control group. In particular, post-test scores were higher than pre-test scores in the experimental group, while they were lower than this in the control group. It appeared that students had positive thoughts about science toy making activities. These science toy making activities had positive effects on the conceptual understanding of the experimental group students. The post-test scores of the experimental group were higher than that of the control group in all domain concepts. From these results, it can be deduced that the science toy making activities were more effective than traditional teaming activities. They were an effective teaching technique which enhanced the scientific interests and the conceptual understanding of the students in question.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.141-156
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• 2011

This research centers around an experiment conducted to determine the relative effectiveness of constructivist cooking activities as compared to traditional cooking activities for young children. Forty-six children, aged five years in two kindergarten classes were assigned to a experimental and comparative group. The experimental and comparative group participated in 12 units. The experimental group participated in the constructivist cooking activities, while the comparative group participated in the traditional cooking activities. Analysis of covariance revealed significant differences between the mean scores of the two groups on the posttests for scientific attitudes and creativity, indicating that the children in the experimental group performed significantly better on the tests than the children in the comparative group. The results of this study suggest that such constructivist cooking activities are able to improve the scientific attitudes and creativity of young children.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.167-191
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to examine how science activities using nonfiction literature affectspreschool children's scientific process skills, attitudes and concepts. For the purposes of this study, two classes, consisting of four and five-year-old children in a kindergarten located in D city were selected. One class was designated as the experimental group and the other as the control group. The experimental group performed science activities using nonfiction literature, while the control group did not. Thisexperimental study was conducted over the course of 8 weeks. Analysis of data was performed by ANCOVA. The results of the posttest indicated that the experimental group which performed science activities using nonfiction literature showed an improvement in their process skills, scientific attitudes and scientific concepts compared with the control group.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.39-57
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• 2017

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effects of science activities related to seasonal customs on young children's scientific inquiry abilities and communicative competences. Methods: Participants consisted of twenty-six 5-year-old children who were going to day care center in Gwangju metropolitan city. Half of them belonged to the experimental group and the other half to the comparative group. The experimental group participated in science activities related to seasonal customs, and the comparative group participated in science activities according to the Nuri curriculum. Results: The results of this study showed that scientific inquiry abilities and communicative competences of the young children in the experimental group were meaningfully improved. That is to say, the scores of the five sub factors of scientific inquiry abilities and the two sub factors of communicative competences of the experimental group were meaningfully higher than those of the comparative group. Conclusion/Implications: It is significant that this study provides basic information for future science activities related to seasonal customs that will be conducted in the early childhood field.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.113-123
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• 2004

The concern with scientific mode1s has been growing in science education, and schematic models are frequently used to teach science concepts in secondary schools. The aim of this study is to investigate how well the scientifically gifted students understand scientific concepts through activities of modifying scientific models which we developed. Thirty 8th-grade students participated in the study, 15 in a control group and 15 in an experimental group. For the students in the experimental group, teaching material with activities of modifying models, while for the students in the control group, the teaching material with traditional activities such as explanation, problem solving, and reading. The teaching contents in physics for both groups were linear momentum. We used multiple-choice test and essay-type test to evaluate students' achievements after lessons, and then compared their achievements of both groups. Through the research, we could find a clue that model-modifying activities are helpful for the gifted students to enhance their understanding of physics concepts, although the statistics does not show meaningful difference between experimental and control groups.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.601-608
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of science activities using drawing on young children's scientific inquiry competences and scientific attitudes. The subjects of this research were a total of 40 young children at age 5 from two classes in G and C child care center which located in G city. The subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. The collected data were analyzed by t-test using SPSS program. The results of this study were as follow: First, experimental group which conducted the science activities using drawing showed significantly higher improvement in sub-factors of scientific inquiry competences, 'perseverance', 'creative', 'critical', and 'volunteering'. Second, experimental group which conducted the science activities using drawing showed significantly higher improvement in sub-factors of scientific attitudes, 'observing', 'measuring', and 'discussion'. Therefor, it might be concluded that science activities using drawing contributed to the development of scientific inquiry competences and scientific attitudes of young children.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine what effects the experiment class to stress discussion of small groups in scientific experiment class of the elementary school has on scientific achievement and attitude on the science of the students comparing to the usual scientific experiment class. For that purpose, this study has divided 49 students at the 6th grade of the M elementary school in P City into test groups of 24 students and control groups of 25 students. Classes have been progressed by giving sufficient time to the test groups for discussion by each small groups after experiment while by allowing the control groups to finish the experiment with arrangement of the experiment results. Conclusions of this study include: First, the more familiar the experiment materials are and the easier the experiment procedures are to be operated by the students, the more actively the small group discussion activities have been deployed. It shows that the students need a certain level of background knowledge before experiment for vital discussing activities. Second, it is appeared that the test groups given the scientific experiment class stressing small group discussing activity have significantly high scores comparing to the control groups given the existing scientific experiment class. It shows that the small group discussing activities have effects on promoting understanding of the students on the scientific achievement for the scientific experiment class. Third, it is appeared that the test groups given the scientific experiment class stressing small group discussing activity significantly high scores on attitude about the science comparing to the control groups given the existing scientific experiment class. It is considered that the students could have opportunities to compare their own thoughts with others and to have reflective thought to change their thoughts through the small group discussing activity. As shown above, it shows that the experiment class to stress discussing activities is more effective to increase scientific achievement and attitude about the science than the scientific experiment class to get and arrange the experiment results from the existing experiment classes.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.746-759
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was examine the effects of STEAM(Science-Technology-Engineering-Art-mathematics) activities on young children's scientific process skill ability and problem solving ability. Subjects were 34 five-year-old young children from S and H child care centers located in G city. Subjects were divided into an experimental(n=17) and a control group(n=17). The experimental group took part in the STEAM activities during 8 weeks, while the control group took part in the traditional science activities. The procedure for this study consisted of a pre-study, a pre-test, the treatment, and a post-test schedule. The results of this study were as follows: First, the experimental group showed significantly higher score than the control group in total scientific process skill ability. Second, the experimental group showed significantly higher score than the control group in total problem solving ability. These findings suggest that the experience of STEAM activities for young children can be effective teaching-learning methods for young children's scientific process skill ability and problem solving ability.

• 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.