NATURAL SCIENCE EDUCATION IN A COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL

2

Authors: Editorial Board

Organizing and scientific committees

5-12

Authors: Milana Beišienė, Rasa Damulytė

We live in an environment rich with various micro-organisms. A lot of germs fall in our hands every day. Various viruses and bacterial infections are spreading through the unclean hands, what can lead to serious health risks. Teachers of pre-school education have the responsibility to encourage young people to develop proper hygiene habits. The principles of personal hygiene must be implemented continuously on a daily basis, by offering suitable, acceptable and interesting forms of activity for children. In order to motivate the development of personal hygiene habits, the creative approach to the importance of clean hands were emphasized: interesting researches, explorations, experiments, moody hands washing motions were performed; various creative activities were offered by using the imagination. Particularly, children were the most motivated by activity through information technology. After carrying out explorations and experiments, the children concluded that there are a lot of germs on the dirty hands and that we are carrying them on foods in such a way. They were convinced that a lot of germs are found on non-greasy fruits and vegetables. The topic of invisible living organisms is very interesting for the children. Once again, it became clear that in order to understand the essence, the child has to study, experiment, explain, discover and learn it by himself. The children emotionally shared their observations, reasoned, focused, and solved the problems during the activities. Tasks, observations, tests gave a sense of pride and self-confidence, all of which it helped to grasp the importance of caring for the cleanness of hands. Children began to wash their hands thoroughly and shared the recipe for soap with their parents. They gave as a present their own made-up soaps for their little friends in the kindergarten. It is likely that all activities will have a positive impact on the formation of children's healthy lifestyle. Additionally, adults must be an example to follow for a healthy lifestyle.

24-32

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

Natural science education in primary school is not only important, but it is also problematic. The importance, first of all, lies in the fact, that natural science education is an inseparable part of general education. Natural science education involves various components - ecological, environmental, healthy lifestyle, harmonious development and other. Experimental- research activity is especially important. Effective all component integration into education process in primary classes remains problematic. This is actual not only in Lithuania. It is obvious, that in order to understand natural science education peculiarities working with the younger age children, exhaustive research are necessary and on their basis modelled, adjusted and developed natural science education in primary school. Only qualitative natural science education, acquired in primary school, can guarantee proper continuation of natural science education in basic and secondary school. Research aim is to analyse primary school teachers’ position on natural science education question, i.e., to ascertain how teachers value personal preparation according to major natural science education fields, what natural science education improvement ways they discern, and what activity ways in natural science education process they like best. The research is quantitative, pilot, of limited amount. The research was carried out between January and February 2018. Working primary school teachers from various Lithuanian primary schools participated in the research. Totally, there were 60 teachers (all women) from more than 25 schools. The carried-out research allows asserting, that primary school teachers’ professional preparation in natural science education sphere remains actual. Practical work organisation is considered the most appropriate activity. Individual students’ differences are tried to be satisfied and considered the least by the teachers. Though teachers tend to demonstrate various experiments (16.0%), research activity is not prevalent (2.3%). A similar situation is observed speaking about technology involvement in education process. Teacher preparation to organise and realise natural science education in primary school is basically valued positively, however, it is diverse. The best preparation is fixated in biology science spheres (e.g., “Green plants” /PI=0.83, SD=0.22/, “People and other animals” /PI=0.80, SD=0.21/, “Life (vital) processes” /PI=0.73, SD=0.21/ and other). The weakest preparation is fixated in physics science fields (e.g., “Electricity (electrical) phenomena” /PI=0.55, SD=0.26/, “Forces and movement” /PI=0.56, SD=0.25/, “Light and sound” /PI=0.57, SD=0.26/ and other). The preparation in chemistry science field is considered average e.g., “Substance changes” /PI=0.64, SD=0.24/, “Substance mixture separation” /PI=0.61, SD=0.23/ and other). Preparation in scientific research field is also valued as average (PI=0.63, SD=0.18) (PI – preparation index). Respondents consider resources/equipment the most important way of natural science education process improvement. Teacher professional improvement possibilities are considered the least important way of improvement. Lessons based on research (or other educational activities) are not considered a very important way of natural science education improvement. More exhaustive research are necessary in future for analysing primary school teacher natural science competence problems, also seeking to better understand experimental-research activity organisation peculiarities in education process.

38-50

Authors: Rita Makarskaitė-Petkevičienė

Currently more attention is paid to natural science education in Lithuania. It is being encouraged to learn in green environment, diverse learning environments are established, however, it is also necessary to enhance teacher natural science literacy, to orientate education process into deeper learning. This article discusses, how to realise insect topic in primary school. French experience is also used for this. Use of insects for teaching purposes can be very beneficial, because students can perform long term observations and experience a lot. They: 1) observe insect development and analyse different stages (egg, larva, pupa, adult; stage length; death and what were the causes of it; environmental conditions: humidity, light, temperature, food, behaviour and so on); 2) develop critical thinking: look for the answers to emerging questions, compare and collate, find similarities and differences, solve emerging problems; 3) develop positive attitudes regarding nature, overcome fear and prejudice (an insect cannot be another animal, isn’t it, therefore it is more important to understand what makes insect so interesting and significant). Insect topic, as any other, can be interesting, useful for students getting to know animate nature, if it is directed towards students’ knowledge and understanding, ability, critical thinking and value attitude education. Teacher, undertaking educational or project activity about insects has to seriously prepare, think out in advance, what part of activity is going to take place in natural environment and what in the classroom, what educational spaces are going to be created or exploited, to read a lot on that topic, to prepare students’ activity sheets.

56-66

Authors: Viktorija Rudak

Argumentation is essential in many sciences. For example, in mathematics it is sought to prove all new statements, theories, tasks, answers. There is also argumentation in biology science to explore ant prove molecular processes in the cell, the process of life evolution. Argumentation has widely explored in logic science, psychology, philosophy, and philology. The ability to argue logically and reasonably is also important in the everyday life of a person. Each of us every day provides some arguments for communicating with family members, colleagues, friends and any other person. Because of that argumentation is one of the essential components of our life. Therefore, it can be said that the ability to argue for a modern person is important because, by being able to provide logical arguments, he will be able to communicate successfully with other people. Looking from the perspective of the natural sciences, the argumentation in this science is no less important than in the sciences mentioned above. It plays an important role in science education. Such argumentation skills are useful in developing a “deep” perception and sound conclusions, especially when dealing with controversial approaches. Moreover, participation in argumentation, direct submission of arguments reinforces conceptual understanding. Scientists claim that ten-year-old child’s thinking has been already fluent, so ten-year-olds can take on more complex cognitive tasks. It means that in carrying out the task in the middle childhood, the child is able to give a logical conclusion, which indicates the ability to argue, to provide evidence, to justify the answer. Therefore, one can conclude that primary school pupils can be successfully trained in argumentation while teaching natural science content. The article presents the results received from analysis of the pupil’s answers which were given while exploring artificial ecosystem-aquarium. The article outlines how students are able to argue during exploration of the artificial ecosystem-aquarium.

80-87

Authors: Danguole Saviciene

We are participating in the projects by environmentalist schools for few years now and conducting phenological observations. For the past year and the half, together with the students, we performed a practical work – the observation of capped mushroom variety and change in Visaginas city. We created an educational film based on our practical work “Capped mushroom variety and change observations in Visaginas city”. Observation goal: To observe the capped mushrooms in the chosen area, to fixate (photograph) their species, to fill the weather calendar. The hypothesis is: the mushroom abundance and variety is determined by weather temperature and humidity. The duration of the observation: • 2016 September, 2017 April, May and September. The course of observation: • We chose the observation area and measured it by square meters; • Every day we observed and fixated growing capped mushrooms in the chosen area (we used smart phones); • We learned to indicate the varieties of the capped mushrooms; • We sorted out the trees under which the mushrooms were growing; • We learned to identify the trees and bushes by their leaves (we organized a contest-game “Find your tree or bush” in the class and in the observation area); • The weather calendar was filled; • We visited Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant’s laboratory of observation and radiology; • We analysed the results of the observation and concluded the results; • We participated in the environmentalist camp; The results of the observation: • The chosen observation area’s size is 168 m2 • There were 11 tree and bush varieties in the observation area; • We identified 26 capped mushroom varieties; • The educational leafs were prepared in order to identify trees, bushes and mushrooms; • The educational game “Identify the Mushroom!” was created; • It was concluded, that mushrooms growing in Visaginas are not radioactive; The interesting fact is, that on 2017 September (compared to the last year’s September), new varieties of the mushroom were found. Such finding lets to conclude the hypothesis, that weather temperature and humidity determines the variety and abundance of mushrooms. The weather observation calendar logs verify, that 2017 September weather was warm and humid. That led to favourable conditions for a more varied variety of mushrooms and populated area sizes. The teaching of the subject of world cognition is strengthened by the integration of other subjects like: mathematics, Lithuanian language, arts and technologies, human safety.

94-104

Authors: Violeta Šlekienė

STEAM education is not new in the world. Many research and international projects aimed at developing and improving this field have been and still are ongoing. In view of the rapid changes in science and technology and the growth of interdisciplinary integration, educational strategists, scientists and specialists from different countries regularly update the content of STEAM subjects and their teaching methods. Educational strategists of our country have declared STEAM education as a priority area of education. The Ministry of Education emphasizes that it is particularly important to raise pupils' interest in STEAM and to train 21st century teachers with STEAM education-relevant competencies. STEAM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real world lessons as students apply science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in contexts that make connections between school, community, work, and the global enterprise enabling the development of STEAM literacy and with it the ability to compete in the new economy. STEAM education emphasizes art and technical creativity as interdisciplinary access, combining it with a rational combination with the peculiarities of individual subjects. At present, in the context of particularly rapid changes in the labor market, it is difficult to predict which specialties will be required when current students complete their studies. It is forecasted that even 65% basic school pupils, when they graduate, will work according to the specialty that currently does not exist and that by the year 2020, due to new technologies and business models, the global labor market will lose at least 7,1 million job places. This means that new skills and specialties will also be sought for educated, intellectually engineered professionals. That means, it is important to emphasize at school not only the importance of the knowledge itself, but also the continuous development of various skills. There is a growing debate about the abilities that will determine your professional and personal success in the future. The factors contributing to the necessity for the development and improvement of STEAM education, STEAM education issues, their causes, what is done in STEAM in other countries and the national STEAM conception have been highlighted in this paper.

117-122

Authors: Audrius Astasevicius

There are 796 children, attending Silute Martynas Basic School (689 students), Traksedziai Progymnasium Department of Silute Martynas Basic School (71student) and pre-school and pre-primary groups (36 children). The pedagogical staff consists of 80 members working as pre-school, pre-primary, primary and basic school teachers, non-formal education teachers, class teachers, 2 social pedagogy teachers, 1 psychologist, 1 special pedagogy teacher, librarians, 1 teaching assistant, 1 public health specialist. The renewed classrooms, school gym, multifunctional sports ground and other spaces in school improves educational conditions. There was equipped an information centre, a modern classroom with an interactive whiteboard, a library. The school provides additional support to formal education and organises 21 non-formal education programme related with sports, music, history, healthy behaviour, IT, handicrafts, drama, chess, folklore, ecology, safe traffic and arts. The students take part in various international, republic and school projects. The school has carried on the partnership with Kasseboellee Freeschool, Denmark and Runavikar Kommunuskuli, Faroe Islands for three years, and 2017-2018 school year is the final one of Nordplus Junior project “Divided by Nature, United by Sea”. This spring, as it was planned, our teachers and students visited Denmark and, after that, accepted partners from Denmark and Faroe Islands. School projects are carried out in accordance with the planned activities in the annual school plan. The school has signed contracts with other institutions and social partners in order to enrich formal and non-formal education. The closest partnership is between the school and other educational institutions. In 2017 the school signed a partnership with Scientific centre “Scientia Educologica”. The aims of the school are to create a safe, healthy and cultural school environment that improves the quality of education and enhances students’ learning motivation, to modernize the environment with new teaching tools, to provide learning support, to develop students’ creativity and citizenship, to encourage teachers to share good experience. The organized methodological activity encourages the use of methods motivating to learn. The results of surveys and researches, fulfilled to learn about students’ adaptation at school, learning styles, individual student’s achievement and the analysis of the quality of school performance assessment, were performed in 2017 and presented to the school society, discussed in 9 methodological groups of different subject areas. Preventive and emotional education programmes such as “Olweus’, Lions Quest and others prevent bullying, violence, raise healthy lifestyle. The consulting activities are organized and the students get pedagogical, social, psychological support and are educated for future careers. The students took part in plenty of academic school, district, republic events (the Olympiads, competitions, quizzes, actions) and won abundance of prizes and awards in 2017.