Gamtamokslinis ugdymas / Natural Science Education

4

Authors: Martin Bílek

Integrated instruction, integration in education, education from the point of integrated view – these and other topics are being discussed together with creating curricula and have influenced school education in numerous countries. They are connected either to the pursuit of finding undifferentiated view on the nature, or to the reduction of lessons in curricula in the framework of Ministry of Education economical measures.

16-23

Authors: Jūratė Česnavičienė, Vida Gudžinskienė

The aim of this work was to investigate peculiarities of the life style of younger teenagers, main factors influencing their life style, and integration of the content of health promotion into educational system. This paper deals with education of 5th–8th form school learners in the field of health promotion. The analysis of health promotion in lessons of different subjects taught in secondary schools is presented. The research was conducted in 2003–2006 in various secondary schools all over Lithuania. The method of anonymous questionnaire was applied. The research involved school learners of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th forms: 545 boys and 731 girls. The total sample of school learners involved in the research was 1276. According to the opinion of teenagers, their life style is mostly influenced by the life style of their parents and family. The biggest attention to the health promotion is paid during lessons of natural sciences, physical culture and technologies. Most frequently school learners study problems of healthy nourishment, communication and interaction, drug and smoking prevention. More than a third of the respondents indicated absence of issues related to the mental health, stress management, sexual compulsion and tooth care. More than half of the school learners indicated lack of discussions related with prevention of heart diseases, cancer, and allergies. Most frequently, health promotion–related problems are integrated into all disciplines thought at school. Applying this model, teachers of all subjects are responsible for implementation of the programme and school learners can promptly get answers to relevant questions. However, the main imperfection of this method is difficulties in co-ordination of the programme implementation. There frequently occur cases when the same topic (e.g., healthy nourishment) is analysed during the lessons of several subjects (e. g., biology, technology, foreign language), whereas some important problems, requiring special knowledge of a teacher (e. g., stress management, sexual education) are usually neglected. Successful implementation of the health promotion programme can be achieved employing an integrated educational model and a specially appointed person can administer co-ordination of teachers of different study subjects.

31-39

Authors: Hanna Gulinska

The key to teach effectively and efficiently is to combine various elements of representation and visualization, work interactively and make connections between the learner’s emotions, images and sensations. A good example of how these principles are applied to teaching is a Polish chemistry coursebook Ciekawa Chemia (The Absorbing Chemistry). The coursebook includes a set of CDs which contain multimedia lessons supported with animations, simulations of processes and chemical phenomena, dynamic and three-dimensional models of elements and compounds, tests and tasks aimed at solving problems as well as film sequences presenting for instance chemical experiments. Thanks to these films, the learner can see particular elements of a given experiment in detail, analyse interrelations between them and memorize how the experiment is carried out as the films can be played repeatedly. Such a way of presenting chemical experiments can help both those teachers and learners who, for various reasons, cannot carry out certain experiments themselves, as well as those seeking inspiration for carrying out new experiments, and most of all those looking for proper didactic tools to explain difficult questions. It seems worth mentioning that the experiments presented on the CDs can be carried out safely and economically. Their visualizations allow to create images of experiments in the learner’s mind which, though cannot replace carrying out experiments in reality but may well constitute a valuable educational tool.

54-61

Authors: Janis Butins

The rapid progress of science and technologies continuously influences our living conditions. It makes us to change ourselves. The new problems which require new solutions appear. Along with the growth of information amount there is a necessity to develop teaching and learning process using different teaching methods and forms. Ecological problems and problems which deal with nature protection grow and it requires the teaching and learning process to be connected with natural processes even more. To know the nature better, students need to be more in natural environment. That is why I offer to pay attention to those teaching forms which have a direct contact with nature, for example, paths of information. With a help of information paths students are able to learn to know the nature, historical and cultural facts and values, they develop their social skills. Information paths make students’ health better and promote a positive attitude towards nature and humankind. There are several cognitive trails described (in the park, school yard, school corridor and classroom, in a natural mildness in a city territory, in a suburb). To know the cognitive trail as a method practically eight cognitive trails were made and gone through together with pupils. They were: a cognitive trail of the right bank of the Daugava called „Daugava Stream”, a dendrologic cognitive trail „City Path” made by the social organization „Green Crow”, a cognitive trail in the classroom called „Variety of Buds”, a cognitive trail in the classroom „Kinds of Roots”, a cognitive trail in the classroom called „Sprout Conversions”, a cognitive trail in the corridor called „Kinds of Boles and Leaves”, a cognitive trail in the school yard called „School Yard”, a cognitive trail in mildness of Riga city called „Vakarbulli”. Each of these cognitive trails were different in their location and theme. Such difference has been chosen to carry out a more detailed study and to try out more teaching methods during the research. Cognitive interest of pupils is developed by cognitive trails. The mental outlook is broadened, pupils learn to observe things in connections and interactions, they strengthen their theoretical knowledge by practice. A cognitive trail is not an end in itself, but its aim is to help to acquire knowledge in school subjects better, to develop skills. The advantage of a cognitive trail is that a direct perception is used. During the work in cognitive trails it was possible to notice students being positive towards each other. All students participated and were active in work, although it was known that some of them did not like biology as a subject and it was not interesting for them. It is possible to conclude that the use of new and interesting teaching methods helps to develop an interest in learning. The information path does not just give new information but it is enjoyable for students, it makes them feel enthusiastic and it creates positive emotions in the learning process. It could be called ‘a short way towards the understanding of nature in people’s mind and hearts’.

4

Authors: Elena Vasilevskaya

In recent years, much has been said about the crisis of science education, the reluctance of young people to study the mysteries of nature. We should have a greater focus on science education issues.

17-24

Authors: Violeta Šlekienė, Loreta Ragulienė

The issue of the study. Our precondition was that non-scientific notions formed by pupils affect concept teaching. If non-scientific notions are in conformity with the content of scientific concepts the teacher should rely on them forming new concepts, explaining natural phenomena, etc. It contributes to the concept comprehension efficacy. In case non-scientific notions are in collision with the content of scientific concepts they should be corrected as in that case they interfere with the formation of scientific concepts. The goals of research. The goals of the research were: 1) to clarify the interaction of pre-scientific notions and scientific concepts about motion and forces; 2) to evaluate the comprehension of concepts by those pupils who had studied physics and to clarify changes in concept understanding and typical errors that had remained after systematic study. Methodology of research. The research was carried out in year 2004. 700 pupils of 7th and 9th forms from the schools of Siauliai, Kaunas, Telsiai district, Kelme district and young physicists’ school “Fotonas” have been involved in the research. Group I included 7th formers (265 pupils), who had not studied physics as a separate subject but had elementary knowledge of physics from the course “World Science” (1st – 4th forms) and the integrated course of natural sciences “Nature and Man” (5th – 6th forms). Group II consisted of 9th form pupils (540), who have been studying physics for three years. The same questions and tasks adapted to the pupils’ age and previous knowledge were given to each group. The concepts from the topics “Force” were included. The tasks included elementary knowledge of the researched concepts familiar to pupils from both groups, but exact and correct answers were given by the 9th formers who had already analysed the topics. Besides, aiming for better evaluation of knowledge in physics, pupils of Group II answering the questions had to formulate proper definitions of the concepts or laws. A discussion method was used to clarify pupils’ thinking procedures. The received data was processed using statistical research methods. Results of research. It was stated during the research that before starting a systematic study of physics pupils had had pre-scientific notions. A number of incorrect notions on motion and force were revealed. In many cases pre-scientific notions were typical and in a way understandable for pupils. Pre-scientific notions often are retained even after purposeful teaching, and in some time or situations they turn out to be even more distinct and convincing than the scientific ones. It has been stated that pupils reproduce concept definitions without any efforts, but in a definite situation they base solutions of a definite task on misleading notions. Very often pupils understand the content of some concepts in a wrong way, do not make distinction between concepts and confuse functional relations of concepts. They are already able to indicate the features of a concept, but are not able to separate essential and inessential concepts.

30-36

Authors: Vilhelmina Lukavičienė, Dalia Urbonavičienė

The paper deals with the conception of sustainable development, its aims and tasks, which orient teachers towards the analysis of environmental problems and their links with economic and social progress. Such approach serves as a starting point formulating and conceptualizing the reasons of the rise and spread of these problems. A definite model oriented towards sustainable development is described and educational experience in the analysis of environmental issues in the aspect of sustainable development is presented. The history of environment provides an opportunity to identify when environmental problems arise and how they vary under the influence of socio-cultural, economic and political factors; it is one of the means studying the basics of sustainable development. Teaching to understand and solve problems in the aspect of the history of environment adds significance to a teacher's activities, which include consistent stages of schoolchildren's practical activities and development of their abilities to analyze and solve environmental issues (problem identification, analysis of its formation and development, understanding the urgency of its solution). Studies of the history of environment in the aspect of sustainable development enable teachers to implement the strategic conception of integrated teaching and national sustainable development in practice. The paper presents integration opportunities of various teaching subjects and the studies of various environmental issues (objects, localities). The described methods give an opportunity to develop various competences of schoolchildren and to stimulate changes in their lifestyle.

45-50

Authors: Vasilij A. Krasitski

The entertaining chemical experiment is an effective way to increase pupils’ interest in chemistry; it helps to study and realize the subject, and to learn the material more deeply. The entertaining experiment may be successfully used during the lesson and after it as part of different activities – conferences, disputes, etc. Besides, this experiment is limited by few well-known and safe school laboratory experiences. The article presents a detailed description of the entertaining cryptography experiment and corresponding methodical recommendations.

58-59

Authors: Rytis Vilkonis

In modern world geography becomes an integral part of mankind’s culture and everyday life, and the significance and topicality of geography teaching in a secondary school increases. However, anyway geography as a subject is not particularly favourite to the Lithuanian pupils and this is easy to explain – conveying, oral methods of teaching dominate at school, the educational process is mainly concentrated not on the quality of knowledge and the ability to apply knowledge in practice but to quantity, often ignoring the development of pupils’ favourable attitude to geography. The evaluation of the ability to orientate on the map often reminds of physical education classes when attention is concentrated on seconds, i.e. the time factor, and not on the sense and practical value of orientating on the map. Meanwhile the modern conception of education emphasises meaningful learning, the wish to learn, satisfaction with the learning process, the ability to apply knowledge and use it in daily life. On the other hand, methodical aids, assisting teachers to change geography lessons currently are not numerous in Lithuania. Considering the existing situation the new book by Dr. L.Railienė and Dr. V.Lamanauskas for primary class and geography teachers “Mokomės geografijos žaisdami“ (We Learn Geography through Play) is topical and useful methodical publication to be used in educational practice. The authors present a particularly large variety of geographical games. These include communication games, labyrinths, rebuses, tasks-tables, code tasks, etc.

4

Authors: Rita Makarskaitė-Petkevičienė

A short communication about the scientific journal `Natural Science Education`.

6-16

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas, Rytis Vilkonis

In the developing knowledge-based society information technologies play a particularly significant role. However, even the most advanced technologies will not give a necessary effect, if their usage (application) in the educational system is not adequate to the current development of technologies and increased educational needs. In the author’s opinion, our epoch is marked with global environmental crisis and the advent of information age. Extensive implementation of a range of information technologies into high and higher school curricula and the emphasis on environmental issues in education are two leading trends in contemporary education. We maintain that it would be optimal if the computer (especially using the Internet) is a natural teaching / learning aids like books and other sources of information. On the other hand, it is necessary to create conditions for teachers to raise qualification. This is emphasized by numerous researchers. It has to be stated that the Internet possibilities in the teaching process are insufficiently used. On the other hand, in principal there are no reliable studies, which would reveal the actual situation in this field. Therefore, the object of our study is the usage of the Internet for teaching physics. The main aim of the study is to analyse the situation of the usage of the Internet for teaching physics and highlight the hindering/encouraging factors of its usage in the teaching process. The most important study tasks have been formulated: • To analyse the situation of the usage of the Internet for teaching physics; • To identify the hindering/stimulating factors of Internet usage for teaching physics; • To highlight the experts’ opinion about the expected development perspectives of Internet usage for teaching physics in the nearest five years period. The study employed expert inquiry. The type of expert inquiry – “Delphi study”, containing several experts’ inquiries (stages). The data of every round are generalised and repeatedly submitted to the experts. Such procedure is repeated several times, most often 3-4 times. The study was carried out in September – December 2005. In the first stage of the study the experts replied to 5 essential questions. In the opinion of the majority of experts (62%) the usage of the Internet during the nearest five years will increase only insignificantly. 31% of experts maintain that the usage of the Internet will increase significantly and 7% think that it will not change at all. Having studied and generalised the first stage results, the new questionnaire for the second stage of the study was prepared. It was identified that the most important factors, hindering the Internet usage were as follows: poor computerisation of physics rooms and the shortage of the Internet access, poor school technical possibilities and poor funding, shortage of specialized Internet websites and of websites applied for teaching physics, poor knowledge of foreign languages, etc. The most important stimulating factors: the wish to interest pupils and search for more diverse teaching forms, the possibility to present the phenomena to the pupils that they find difficult to imagine, the diversification of the demonstration and laboratory teaching aids, etc. In the third stage of the study the experts had to assess the generalised second stage results. In many cases the experts approved the generalised assessment of the current situation; however, they noted that the situation in town schools and village schools differed. The experts clearly expressed their concern regarding the immoderate ICT usage in the teaching process and emphasized that the computer will never replace the teacher’s explanation and natural experiments with real physical bodies in the real environment. Some conclusions were indicated: • The Internet possibilities for teaching physics are not being fully used both for objective and subjective reasons. • It is expected that during the nearest five years the Internet usage will increase only insignificantly. • Higher effectiveness of ICT application for teaching physics can be achieved in the presence of continuous monitoring (how the situation changes, what influences it, etc.), on the other hand, the physics teachers need continuous methodical assistance, independent of their formal qualification. Effective ICT application for teaching physics is one of the composite parts of the competence of physics teachers. • Continuous studies and in-service training institutions should allocate more attention raising the qualification of physics teachers in this field.

24-31

Authors: Onutė Gervienė

Self-expression is characteristic to any student and planning a drama lesson a teacher’s task is to make it very important for the student. If it turns out to be a success students will have an inner wish to improve their knowledge. The method of drama is one of the means to educate students seeking positive changes. The essence of this method is to feel the interrelation with the technology, the process of changes by means of drama signs. Drama method enables to develop abilities giving special tasks to the students with individual character and aptitudes. Each student has an opportunity to improve and seek higher level at a certain pace. Drama method is based on differentiation, the students have excellent possibilities to evaluate themselves, make conclusions, suggest technologies and make decisions. This article is an attempt to touch upon some examples how the method of drama helps to arouse students’ motivation for a peculiar subject. Besides, a teacher always tries to find links between students’ personal experience and the topic of the lesson so that the students could demonstrate their knowledge, attitude, thinking and opinion by means of drama method. All things considered, it is possible to state that the use of drama method in any lesson is a powerful tool to improve knowledge, feel open to cultural variety and establish social relations.

37-42

Authors: Daiva Paškevičienė, Algimantas Paškevičius

The article presents methodological recommendations for the implementation of the project of a microbiological nature. The urgency of the project is undoubted, as it has been noticed that school classes were overcrowded with pupils and almost not ventilated in winter, thus, schoolchildren often suffered from respiratory illnesses. Besides, secondary school programs include many themes in which the concept of microorganisms is used, however, pupils usually lack practical knowledge about isolation of microorganisms in a laboratory and their distribution in the air. The main aim of this work was to evaluate microbial contamination of school premises as well as to provide pupils with knowledge about biological peculiarities of various systematic groups (bacteria, micromycetes and yeast-like fungi) and their macro- and micro-morphological peculiarities. To achieve the aim, the following tasks were set: 1) to develop pupils’ abilities to make experiments and develop their initial skills in research; 2) to form their cognitive experience of the surrounding world while performing team tasks; 3) to develop pupils’ creative-organizational abilities as an integral process of theoretical and practical actions. Due to lack of equipment and conditions, it is not easy to perform microbiological projects in schools. Furthermore, a teacher should have competence, though due to this, in the article much attention is paid to the methods of project performance. Necessary labware and nutritive media for project implementation are indicated. Possible variants of an experiment scheme are discussed and the stages of the experiment are presented coherently. Preparation of microscopical mounts and microscopy methods are described in detail. It is pointed out that the identification of microorganisms is a very hard work, so teachers should be trained in microbiological methods. Handbooks, which can be used for the identification of some microorganisms, are indicated. Much attention is paid to the presentation of experiment results, as pupils participating in the project get much information about microorganisms. Participants get familiarized with the size and shape of bacterial cells and fungal macro-morphological (colony colour, shape, size and colour of colony reverse) and micro-morphological (a shape of conidia and mycelium) peculiarities. Pupils observe reproduction ways of yeast-like fungi (budding and binary fission) and determine yeast cell shape, size and other characteristic properties. While describing microorganisms isolated from school indoor air, pupils indicate a systematic group to which a microorganism (a bacterium, micromycete and yeast-like fungus) belongs. When the opportunities to identify microorganisms exist, pupils point out a genus and a species to which a microorganism is ascribed. Possible variants of systematizing the obtained results (tables and pictures, etc.) are discussed. The implementation of the project in schools has undoubted theoretic and practical significance, because pursuing the project the pupil’s abilities to make an experiment are developed and initial skills in research and cognitive experience of the surrounding invisible world are formed. Execution of the project induces pupils’ creative-organizational abilities as an integral process of theoretical and practical actions. Later the pupils willingly participate in competitions and conferences of young researchers – naturalists, write papers, prepare a wall newspaper about microbial contamination of school indoor air and give recommendations about improvement of school sanitation. While performing team tasks, participants get knowledge about microorganisms of various systematic groups (bacteria, micromycetes and yeast-like fungi), their isolation under laboratory conditions and distribution in the indoor air. Pupils can use obtained knowledge in the lessons of the course “A Man and his Health” (9th grade) as well as in ecology and general biology (11th – 12th grades) lessons.

50-56

Authors: Vasilii Аnatol’evich Krasickii

School chemical experiment plays a very important role in the process of chemistry teaching. It increases learning effectiveness of teaching material, develops pupils’ cognitive activity and forms interest in the subject. Some teachers, however, decrease the share of the chemical experiment in the teaching process, motivating this by the lack or absence of the necessary reagents at school, and for the reasons of safety and responsibility for pupils’ health. Therefore, the problems of supplying school laboratories with reagents and the safety of chemical experiment are topical. This article describes original simple and safe methods of preparing some important reagents from the substances and materials that are available in school laboratories. The proposed methods will assist teachers, when necessary, to solve the problem of the lack of some reagents independently. Safe method of obtaining ethylene can be also successfully used in pupils’ experiments.