• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.376-388
• /
• 1996

The first and the second "Discussion Contest of Scientific Investigation" was evaluated in this study. This contest was a part of 'Korean Youth Science Festival' held in 1993 and 1994. The evaluation was based on the data collected from the middle school students of final teams, their teachers, a large number of middle school students and college students who were audience of the final competition. Questionnaires, interviews, reports of final teams, and video tape of final competition were used to collect data. The study focussed on three research questions. The first was about the preparation and the research process of students of final teams. The second was about the format and the proceeding of the Contest. The third was whether participating the Contest was useful experience for the students and the teachers of the final teams. The first area, the preparation and the research process of students, were investigated in three aspects. One was the level of cooperation, participation, support and the role of teachers. The second was the information search and experiment, and the third was the report writing. The students of the final teams from both years, had positive opinion about the cooperation, students' active involvement, and support from family and school. Students considered their teachers to be a guide or a counsellor, showing their level of active participation. On the other hand, the interview of 1993 participants showed that there were times that teachers took strong leading role. Therefore one can conclude that students took active roles most of the time while the room for improvement still exists. To search the information they need during the period of the preparation, student visited various places such as libraries, bookstores, universities, and research institutes. Their search was not limited to reading the books, although the books were primary source of information. Students also learned how to organize the information they found and considered leaning of organizing skill useful and fun. Variety of experiments was an important part of preparation and students had positive opinion about it. Understanding related theory was considered most difficult and important, while designing and building proper equipments was considered difficult but not important. This reflects the students' school experience where the equipments were all set in advance and students were asked to confirm the theories presented in the previous class hours. About the reports recording the research process, students recognize the importance and the necessity of the report but had difficulty in writing it. Their reports showed tendency to list everything they did without clear connection to the problem to be solved. Most of the reports did not record the references and some of them confused report writing with story telling. Therefore most of them need training in writing the reports. It is also desirable to describe the process of student learning when theory or mathematics that are beyond the level of middle school curriculum were used because it is part of their investigation. The second area of evaluation was about the format and the proceeding of the Contest, the problems given to students, and the process of student discussion. The format of the Contests, which consisted of four parts, presentation, refutation, debate and review, received good evaluation from students because it made students think more and gave more difficult time but was meaningful and helped to remember longer time according to students. On the other hand, students said the time given to each part of the contest was too short. The problems given to students were short and open ended to stimulate students' imagination and to offer various possible routes to the solution. This type of problem was very unfamiliar and gave a lot of difficulty to students. Student had positive opinion about the research process they experienced but did not recognize the fact that such a process was possible because of the oneness of the task. The level of the problems was rated as too difficult by teachers and college students but as appropriate by the middle school students in audience and participating students. This suggests that it is possible for student to convert the problems to be challengeable and intellectually satisfactory appropriate for their level of understanding even when the problems were difficult for middle school students. During the process of student discussion, a few problems were observed. Some problems were related to the technics of the discussion, such as inappropriate behavior for the role he/she was taking, mismatching answers to the questions. Some problems were related to thinking. For example, students thinking was off balanced toward deductive reasoning, and reasoning based on experimental data was weak. The last area of evaluation was the effect of the Contest. It was measured through the change of the attitude toward science and science classes, and willingness to attend the next Contest. According to the result of the questionnaire, no meaningful change in attitude was observed. However, through the interview several students were observed to have significant positive change in attitude while no student with negative change was observed. Most of the students participated in Contest said they would participate again or recommend their friend to participate. Most of the teachers agreed that the Contest should continue and they would recommend their colleagues or students to participate. As described above, the "Discussion Contest of Scientific Investigation", which was developed and tried as a new science contest, had positive response from participating students and teachers, and the audience. Two among the list of results especially demonstrated that the goal of the Contest, "active and cooperative science learning experience", was reached. One is the fact that students recognized the experience of cooperation, discussion, information search, variety of experiments to be fun and valuable. The other is the fact that the students recognized the format of the contest consisting of presentation, refutation, discussion and review, required more thinking and was challenging, but was more meaningful. Despite a few problems such as, unfamiliarity with the technics of discussion, weakness in inductive and/or experiment based reasoning, and difficulty in report writing, The Contest demonstrated the possibility of new science learning environment and science contest by offering the chance to challenge open tasks by utilizing student science knowledge and ability to inquire and to discuss rationally and critically with other students.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.328-341
• /
• 2004

Presowing seed treatments used to enhance the rates of germination and afterward seedling emergence have not occasionally shown the same rate in indoor and field. The treatments considering germination mechanism and factors affecting germination must be totally included in indoor experiments so that the results drawn can be reproduced in the field. Seed germination is controlled by Phytochrome-mediated action changed with composition rates of red and far-red lights. Sunlight can penetrate soil into $6{\sim}9\;mm$ depth, which in turn means that seeds having $2{\sim}3\;mm$ in their width may receive the light if soil was covered 3 times over them. The penetrating light, moreover, turns to more far-red light than red light reverse to the sunlight. For germination tests after the artificial presowing seed treatments, therefore, seeds of smaller than 2 mm (< 2 mm), $2{\sim}3\;mm$, and larger than 3 mm (> 3 mm) must be done with incandescent lamp (IL) having more far-red light, with IL or in darkness, and in darkness, respectively. The 96 papers published in 13 Korean scientific journals up to the end of 2003 were analysed on the basis of the above explanation. 91 species were used 147 times as experimental materials; 101 times for < 2 mm seeds, 24 times for $2{\sim}3\;mm$ seeds and 22 times for > 3 mm seeds. If they were analysed as the light sources used for germination tests, correct applications reached more and less than 60% in both $2{\sim}3\;mm$ and > 3 mm seeds but 23% in < 2 mm seeds, conclusionally meaning that when the experimental results in the scientific papers were applied into farming practices, care was taken of their application because most of medicinal plant seeds were very small.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.337-346
• /
• 2020

In this study, we investigated the characteristics of students participating in Science Core high schools classes and their relevance to Positive Experiences on Science (hereinafter, PES), and factors causing PES, presented by the students of Science Core high schools. A total of 20 students and five teachers in four regions across the country participated in the in-depth interview, which were conducted with the focus group of students first, and then in-depth interviews with teachers. Based on the interview results, we explored teaching and learning experiences helpful to the PES, assessment experiences resulting in the PES, and ways to support Science Core high schools to enhance their PES. Students and teachers of Science Core high schools argued that students' participation will increase only if they engage in classes while drawing attention within the range that students can understand, students' PES such as scientific interest can be improved through experiments in which students choose topics or design their own exploration process, science competencies such as science problem solving ability and scientific thinking ability should be developed through exploratory experiment activities that fit the nature of science, etc. In addition, regarding ways to improve and support Science Core high schools to enhance PES, securing science class hours, restructuring the contents of science elective courses, and necessity of maintaining Science Core high schools are suggested. Based on the research results of science high school students' PES, ways to improve the PES of general high school students are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.99-108
• /
• 2010

This study lays its purpose on examining the effects of lessons with the application of drawing tasks on changes in conception among gifted science students. The lesson with the application of drawing tasks means the lesson where students express key concepts regarding lesson subjects in drawings which are then applied to the lessons to develop conception among the learners. This study analyzed the effectiveness of lessons by comparing conception scores before and after experiments between an experiment group with the application of drawing tasks and a control group with normal lessons for the gifted in general for 8 months from March to October, 2008. In addition, the researcher examined how the effectiveness of the developed lessons show differently according to levels of meta-cognition, creative problem-solving abilities, and scientific inquiry skills among the gifted students. The results from this study are as the following. First, lessons with the application of drawing tasks were effective in changing conception among the gifted science students. It is possibly because in the process where one student compare his/her own drawings with the others' ones and discuss them, changes in conception occurred effectively among the learners. Second, it was revealed that lessons utilizing drawing tasks have equal effects on changes in conception among both student groups irrespective of their levels of meta-cognition. Accordingly the lesson for changing perceptions utilizing drawing tasks developed in this study is a program which can be applied to all gifted science students in order to change conception among them. Third, lessons utilizing drawing tasks have the greatest effects on the gifted science students at a 'middle' level of creative problem solving abilities. Fourth, lessons utilizing drawing tasks have the greatest effects on the gifted science students at a 'middle' level of scientific inquiry skills. Putting these results together, it is thought that if lessons utilizing drawing tasks are applied to gifted science students, not only their concepts would be changed effectively but also their attitudes toward science would be changed positively.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.629-648
• /
• 2015

This study is a case study examining how research-based 'authentic' science education program contextually facilitates students' learning on NOS as a process. We developed 'Becoming a Scientist' mentor-mentee program and applied it to six Korean 7th graders for 8 months. A mentor, who is also a researcher, provided scaffolding and coaching, and her mentees were to perform the whole process of science research, including selecting the research subject and questions, planning research design, doing experiments, collecting and analysing data, writing research paper, and experiencing poster presentation at an academic conference. The research questions are 1) What would the students experience at every step of their research process?, and 2) Which perceptions would they construct NOS as a process? Data include classroom observations, interview, mentor's journal, and students' learning products. The results show that the mentees have experienced their views of NOS as a process in various ways such as role of research question and purpose, validity of measured value, researcher's subjectivity in interpreting data, experience of making public and peer review, and significance of academic conference. This study has shown that students' actual experience in scientific research enhanced their views about NOS as process without explicit and reflective approaches. We defined 'authenticity' associated with not only with its similarity to what scientists do but to learner's identity as scientific researcher. Based on the situated learning theory, this study sheds light on the necessity of reconsideration about the meaning of authenticity and embodying authentic context in science education for better NOS learning.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.147-153
• /
• 2013

Functional game, which is the combination of play and learning and a futuristic tool, can minimize the dysfunction and maximize the proper functions, and furthermore, has taken root as a new alternative that can change the game industry and game culture. Recently, the focus of game and education markets is shifting to the development of more advanced learning contents, rather than emphasizing the self-control and motivation of users. Along with that, the game market has excluded the socially dysfunctional elements, such as the addiction and learning disabilities, and has witnessed a diversification into the human-friendly entertainment business that emphasizes the mental and physical health and pursues scientific educational effects. In addition, functional games are expanding its reach from the professional sectors - such as medical aide/medical learning, military simulation, health, auxiliary tools, special education and learning tools - to the realm of routine education, mental health, etc., and has seen a steady growth. However, most functional games, which are being currently planned and developed to cope with the special characteristics of the market, have not undergone accurate scientific assessment of their functions and have not proven their effectiveness. An overwhelming proportion of the functional games are being developed based on the intuition and experience of game developers. Moreover, the type of games, which involve the repetition of simple tasks or take the form of simple puzzles, cannot effectively combine the practically interesting factors and the learning effects. Most games incorporate unscientific methods leading to the vague anticipation of improvement in functions, rather than the assessment of human functions. In this paper, a study was conducted to present the measures that could maximize the effects of functional games in relation to the changes in the visual and auditory stimulations in order to maximize the effects of functional games, i,e., the immersion and concentration. To compare the degree of effects arising from the visual stimulation, the functional game contents made in the form of 2D and 3D were utilized. In addition. ultra sound and 3-dimensional functional game contents were utilized to compare the degree of effects resulting from the changes in the auditory stimulation. The brainwave of the users were measured while conducting the experiments related to the response to the changes in visual and auditory stimulations in 3 steps, and the results of the analysis were compared.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.160-173
• /
• 2012

Roofing tile research conducted in Korea so far is mostly related to studies on roofing tile patterns excavation report on the roof tile klin site in the aspects of archeology architecture and history of art. There have been continuous studies on kiln ground and manufacture techniques of roofing tiles. However it is difficult to find roofing tiles research based on scientific experiments. The research on this paper performs physical and chemical experimental study to understand order, manufacturing techniques and other characteristics of Chosun Dynasty roofing tiles excavated in Dongdaemun stadium. As for physical experimental study water absorption, specific gravity, whole-rock Magnetic susceptibility rate and Differential Thermal Analysis are conducted. As for chemical experimental study, neutron activation analysis(NAA), microstructure observation, X-ray diffractometry(XRD) analysis are conducted. Result of neutron activation analysis and statistical analysis on piece of roof tile 22 samples clearly show that the roofing tile samples are from different time line and places. It also shows different composition when compare average value of rare earth resources per findspots. It means roofing tiles were manufactured from clay mineral from several places. Close inspection using XRD and polarization microscope reveals that main components of roofing tiles are quartz and felspar. Mica and Illite are found partially. XRD analysis shows mullite mineral composition which occurs when roofing tile is calcined around $1000^{\circ}C$. Differential thermal analysis shows gradual exothermic peak near $900^{\circ}C$. Based on these results, it is assumed that roofing tile is made at $900{\sim}1000^{\circ}C$. result of XRD analysis shows mullite were made near $1000^{\circ}C$. in Differential Thermal Analysis shows gradual exothermic peak near $900^{\circ}C$. this results shows that roof tiles were made near 900~1000 near $1000^{\circ}C$ mean value of whole-rock Magnetic susceptibility rate. When performed comparative analysis using whole-rock Magnetic susceptibility rate average value, findspots provided no certain classification to arrange. Nonetheless low whole-rock Magnetic susceptibility rate 0.2~0.78(${\times}103$ SI unit) is found when roofing tile patterns are Pasangmun, Taesangmun, Eosangmun, Kyukjamun, Heongsunmun. Overall absorptivity is 14~21%. It is similar to 14~18% of roofing tile from Chosun Dynasty. There is only 1.4~2.5g/cm3 of roof tile sample specific gravity. The analysis finds no difference in specific gravity by findspots.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.83-88
• /
• 2004

Magnetism of molecular nanomagnet, which attracted a lot of academic attention after the discovery of the macroscopic quantum tunneling of magnetism, is reviewed. Molecular nanomagnet is metal-organic material in which magnetic ions are regularly located in the organic skeleton. Also, the interaction between the molecules is very small and those molecules form macroscopic molecular crystal in which molecules are residing at the element points in the crystal. Molecular nanomagnets show a lot of interesting features, especially, equivalence of macroscopic magnetic properties and molecular magnetic properties. In this paper, research results on molecular nanomagnet with microscopic tool like NMR are reviewed mainly. The new method to observe the quantum tunneling of magnetization discovered in Mnl2-ac with NMR is shown and the research results on the microscopic aspects of the macroscopic quantum tunneling of magnetization using the new method are shown. Also, the physical aspect of the level crossing effect which has been reported originally with NMR in molecular nanomagnet is reviewed with experiment results. The research results on the molecular nanomagnets will reveal the important information about the limit of the miniaturization of magnetic memory units and give us the basic scientific knowledge which is needed for the application for the quantum computation. Moreover, academically, many quantum mechanical theories which have not been checked the validity can be checked with experiments.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.101-114
• /
• 2014

While there are persistent rumors that the consumption of goat meat dishes increases blood pressure, there is no scientific evidence to support this. Two experiments were conducted to clarify whether or not blood pressure increases in conjunction with the consumption of goat meat dishes. In experiment 1, 24 Dahl/Iwai rats (15 weeks old, body weight $309.3{\pm}11.1$ g) were evenly separated into 4 groups. The control group (CP) was fed a diet containing 20% chicken and 0.3% salt on a dry matter basis. The goat meat group (GM) was fed a diet containing 20% goat meat and 0.3% salt. The goat meat/salt group (GS) was fed a diet containing 20% goat meant and 3% to 4% salt. The Okinawan mugwort (Artemisia Princeps Pampan)/salt group (GY) was fed a diet containing 20% goat meat, 3% to 4% salt and 5% of freeze-dried mugwort powder. The experiment 1 ran for a period of 14 weeks during which time the blood pressure of the animals was recorded. The GS, and GY groups consumed significantly more water (p<0.01) than the CP and GM groups despite the fact that their diet consumption levels were similar. The body weight of animals in the CP, GM, and GS groups was similar while the animals in the GY group were significantly smaller (p<0.01). The blood pressure in the GM group was virtually the same as the CP group throughout the course of the experiment. In contrast, while the blood pressure of the animals in the GS and GY group from 15 to 19 weeks old was the same as the CP group, their blood pressures were significantly higher (p<0.01) after 20 weeks of age. The GY group tended to have lower blood pressure than the GS group. In experiment 2, in order to clarify whether or not the increase in blood pressure in the GS group and the GY group in experiment 1 was caused by an excessive intake of salt, the effects on blood pressure of a reduction of salt in diet were investigated. When amount of salt in the diet of the GS and GY group was reduced from 4% to 0.3%, the animal's blood pressure returned to normotensive. These results indicate that, as in the case of chicken consumption, prolonged consumption of goat meat does not cause increased blood pressure, rather the large amount of salt used in the preparation of goat meat dishes is responsible for the increase in blood pressure.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.307-320
• /
• 2020

This study explores how the positioning of two pre-service science teachers (PSTs) is reflected in their different epistemic understandings of inquiry-based lessons. We collected the PSTs' products during their design and enactment of an inquiry-based lesson and recorded their practices in the enacted lesson. Interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The results indicate that one PST, Dohyung was positioned as a subject of evaluation throughout the course and the other, Jinwoo, was positioned as a preservice teacher and a subject of evaluation. Their positions were reflected in their epistemic understandings of inquiry-based lessons, which were developed when designing these lessons. During lesson design, both PSTs showed a shared understanding; they explained inquiry-based lessons as students setting and evaluating hypotheses under teachers' guidance. However, as they faced unexpected situations during lesson enactment, they developed different epistemic understandings. To receive a good grade, Dohyung showed a strong preference for anticipating situations that could occur in class and planning responses to them. He understood inquiry-based lessons as ones in which students conduct experiments to produce results expected by the teacher. On the other hand, Jinwoo emphasized the reasoning process based on students' prior knowledge and explained inquiry-based lessons as ones in which students construct new knowledge through a scientific reasoning process based on their knowledge. The findings of this study will contribute to developing strategies to support PSTs' development of their epistemic understandings of knowledge construction in inquiry-based lessons.