Gamtamokslinis ugdymas / Natural Science Education

5-16

Authors: Aykut Emre Bozdogan

In this study, it was attempted to obtain information from their drawings about which science fields the students, visiting Feza Gursey Science Center (FGSC), were interested in the most. The research was performed in 5 primary schools which visited FGSC in Ankara in 2005 and it took 4 weeks. One hundred and twenty-two students from 6th, 7th and 8th grades were evaluated in this study. In obtaining interests of students from 6th, 7th and 8th grade towards science fields after the exhibitions in the FGSC, “drawing” method which is a qualitative approach was used. As a result of this research, it is found that students who visited FGSC are mostly interested in physics a science field, and biology, chemistry and astronomy fields follow this. It was also noted that only 24 out of 122 students who attended the research knew the name of exhibition or activity which he drew about.

27-34

Authors: Gražina Lamanauskienė

It should be noticed that though the amount of information resources is constantly increasing, natural science education suffers from lack of electronic information sources. Moreover, in this case, the Lithuanian language is used extremely rarely. Presently, more and more teachers of natural sciences use the Internet, and therefore the popularity of electronic information resources is growing. However, the questions of how to evaluate the quality of similar resources and how to conceptually integrate those into the teaching/learning process arise. Legal and ethical aspects of using information found on the Internet are faced i.e. the problems of quotation, plagiarism and copyright are encountered. Connecting science education teachers to innovative electronic information resources is the subject of discussion. The growing number of electronic resources can make finding resources with high quality content. Electronic resources are not fully realized by science education teachers. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to introduce science teachers with the most popular digital resources. In this article the databases, e-libraries, e-journals and books, encyclopedias, most popular search engines for science teachers are presented.

40-45

Authors: Stasė Bučiuvienė

Although the General education programmes are aimed at developing children’s abilities to understand and communicate with the world of nature and to know the closest environment, the modern educational system devotes scant attention to environmental studies. Theoretically, everyone at school accepts the importance of research on environmental issues, however, practically only the teachers willing to discover something new are involved in such activities. Environmental education becomes more amateur. The believers in environmental research as the most efficient perception method do not have a feeling of disappointment. This is the exact media where social and ethical problems are successfully solved, socialization of children takes place, self-expression is encouraged, an attitude to protect nature is formed and abilities of scientific acquisition are developed. Mathematics is a valuable tool of environmental research in primary school. The author supposes that a right combination of mathematics and environmental studies can help with achieving positive results. Researching the immediate nature is the most efficient way to know it. The children acknowledge the environment through seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and sometimes tasting. Along environment acquisition, the valuable attitudes such as aesthetical perception and the moral culture are acquired. Environmental studies provides information necessary for successful teaching of natural sciences. The environment-centred activities assist the learners in gaining the initial skills at collecting and processing information. In the majority of cases, environmental studies cannot be imagined without mathematics, and therefore an accurate combination of mathematics and environmental education must be performed. In this case, a teacher experiences serious difficulties that can be overcome by the scientists fairly familiar with the methodologies of these subjects. The mother tongue, arts, physical education etc. encounter the same situation. The teachers and class mentors arrange plenty of nature trips, excursions and sightseeing tours. Nevertheless, due to lack of a clear policy and modern methodologies these activities are poorly coherent. Environmental studies are sponsored by private initiatives and thus not always are balanced and suffer from shortage of consistency, purposefulness and continuation.

52-59

Authors: Olga V. Sergeyeva

The article (the first one from the suggested serial) deals with the main ideas, conceptions and terms of the new and rapidly developing sphere of human cognition and practice – nanotechnology. The nanochemistry problem field is determined and it’s objects (clusters, nanoparticles, quantum dots) are briefly characterized as well as their very special properties. Nanochemistry is a new area of modern science. In the field of education the training courses considering interdisciplinary character of given area of a science are now developed.