Gamtamokslinis ugdymas / Natural Science Education

6-18

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas, Jūratė Armonienė

Stepping into the 21st century changes inevitably increase in all spheres of human life. The development of technologies, availability of different resources, the shifts of social roles and many other novelties determined human life which is getting more and more complicated. Challenges of modern society in one way or another affect the young person as well and many of them are encouraged to choose unhealthy way of living (e.g., smoking, drugs, immoderate usage of alcohol, unhealthy nutrition and other). Healthy way of living in this context becomes as urgent as never before. The problem of healthy way of living has obviously many aspects. Over the last decade quite a lot of tests in the sphere of healthy way of living have been carried out in various countries. These tests confirm, in fact, that such components as nutrition, physical activity, overweight, self-evaluation, good learning achievements, health, image, self-confidence, behaviour and other are closely interrelated and influence each other. The research “Healthy way of living in pupils’ eyes” is based on positivistic-quantitative approach. The authors keep to the position that measurement of causative links between variables is very important. The research was carried out in January-February, 2011. The aim of the research is to investigate Lithuanian comprehensive scho-ol upper school students’ opinions on healthy way of living. In the research the authors’ prepared questionnaire formed from open and closed questions was used (Lamanauskas, Armonienė, 2011). 1265 Lithuanian comprehensive school 9-12 form pupils participated in the research. It has been stated, that most of the respondents think, that healthy way of living is important and necessary. However, healthy way of living is much more important for girls than for boys. It is believable, that this, first of all, is related with self-evaluation and image. On the other hand, it is believed, that a big gap exists between the understanding of importance of healthy way of living and propagation of such way of living in practice. It has been stated, that approximately one-third of respondents propagate such way of living. Besides, younger pupils propagate more such way of living comparing with senior ones. This can be related with senior form pupils’ bigger occupation, bigger learning load. During the lessons attention is practically not paid to healthy way of living, teachers, in fact, are not interested in pupils’ activity and rest regime and do not help them to plan their daily routine properly. At school pupils do not get enough information on these questions, healthiness events are also very rare in schools.

25-35

Authors: Małgorzata Krzeczkowska, Ewa Odrowąż, Elżbieta Szostak

Since 1999 a study subject called ‘Elements of Science’ has existed in Polish primary schools. Elements of the science covers issues from biology, geography, physics and chemis-try. There is no separate university course of studies in Poland that would prepare teachers to teach this subject. Natural science is taught by biology, chemistry, geography, and physics teachers, who obtain additional accreditation in order to teach this subject (Grodzinska-Jurczak, 2000). Students of the Jagiellonian University’s chemistry department can also ob-tain these credentials. In order to do so, they must participate in the Methodology of Teaching of Science course. One of the elements of this course is environmental education. The first aim of this study was to determine to what extent the students at various levels of the educational system are familiar with ecological problems. The second aim was to develop a format for lessons that can be used by teachers to introduce ecological issues in the classroom or through extra-curricular activities.

44-47

Authors: Sergey Teleshov

Short communication related to the prof. Aaarne Toldsepp, Tartu, Estonia.

8-26

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas, Violeta Šlekienė, Loreta Ragulienė, Renata Bilbokaitė

Over the latter years education practice has changed a lot. New ways, forms and me-ans of teaching “are coming” to comprehensive schools. Even applying common teaching methods and forms, their application algorithm is changing. First of all, it is related to virtual environment. You can find plenty of important material for education practice in the internet. One of urgent fields is digital teaching/learning content. We can basically assert that digital teaching/learning content is a perspective way seeking to improve education process. However, it is not right to refer only to research works carried out in other countries. It is ne-cessary to assess the context of the country, to accomplish representative evaluations in the population of Lithuanian students and teachers. Digital teaching/learning content, as research works carried out in other countries show, can be an effective means in the teaching/learning process. Lithuania is short of such research works. Quite often teachers practitioners “are experimenting” in a very limited space and restrict themselves to only individual digital content component creation, e.g., of various computer teaching programmes. The object of this research is the efficiency evaluation of digital presentations and les-son scenarios for “Nature and man “subject lessons. Digital presentations and lesson scenarios are arranged according to the textbook “In scientists’ footsteps 5”content. The main aim is to evaluate the arranged digital teaching/learning content. The evaluation was carried out in four main aspects: • Didactic; • Technological; • Usage; • Need. The research was going on from the beginning of January, 2011 to the middle of April, 2011. 20 teachers gave experimental lessons and carried out the evaluation of each of them. The evaluation paper was prepared. It contained 34 statements, connected with the employ-ment of digital content. The statements were evaluated in the 5 range scale from “quite agree” to “quite disagree”. Also the teachers were asked to give comments which they considered to be necessary. Experimental lessons were given in the following order: • IB+PPT (Interactive board +Power Point presentation); • IB+AcIns (interactive board +Active Inspire presentation); • S+PPT (screen + PowerPoint presentation); • S +AcIns (screen + Active Inspire presentation). One group of teachers (11) were using interactive boards + PPT/AcIns + lesson scena-rios in the lessons. The second group (10) were using the screen + PPT/AcIns + lesson scenarios in the lessons. In addition, some teachers tried IB/S + lesson content was given in pdf format. Research results show, that digital teaching/learning content together with arranged lesson scenarios for the realisation of the latter is undoubtedly, an innovative phenomenon in the educational practice. DTC (Digital Teaching Content) application in education practice is significant, because it directly educates students’ digital literacy as one of the essential abilities. DTC is basically interpreted as a component supplementing and integrating traditional teaching means. It has been stated, that DTC usage makes the lesson more effec-tive regardless of the subject of the lesson (makes it more interesting, diverse, more attractive), develops students’ cognitive and psychosocial abilities, strengthens learning motivation, activates teaching/learning process itself. In addition, employment of DTC plays a supplementing role in education process applying various ICT, e.g., interactive boards, multimedia projectors and other. It has been stated, that prepared DTC in respect of realisation and extent of time is suitable and optimal. Optimal amount of slides is presented, the duration of slide usage in terms of time is optimal, and the foreseen activities are fully implemented. Referring to research results we can claim, that the priority is given to Active Inspire format. We can surely assert that DTC usage together with the other teaching /learning devices solves valeological - ergonomic problems. Time is saved, the usage of time allotted to learning is made more effective, teachers’ work itself is made easier, in this way forming possibilities to solve other important education questions.

33-39

Authors: Renata Bilbokaitė

The term visualization is defined as representation of images but this is only a brief ex-planation because the term encompasses all kinds of represented information in various forms of codes. Priority in information codes has shifted from verbal codes to visual codes. A computer screen has enabled an individual to see invisible and difficult objects and made cognitive and social processes easier. Visualization tools have the strongest position among other teaching/learning tools because of such features as complex 3D, spatial relationships, parameters of moving objects and comprehensible representation of images. Visualization takes into account schoolchildren’s perceptive and cognitive abilities including visual thinking and meta-cognition. The previous authors’ researches results enclosed that there were statistically significant differences between two main categories that showed that boys more than girls used searches for visualization in the internet. According to this, there is a question – what has influenced this difference? The aim is to find out boys’ opinion why they are searching for visualization more than girls. The results enclose that the boys more frequently search for visualizations in the inter-net than girls. There were found out two main reasons that explained stated data. Search for visualization was used for learning purposes and for meeting their requirements. In firstly, boys want to have a deeper knowledge, also, they identify that visualization stimulates their cognitive processes and motivation too. Secondly, boys are noisy than girls during the lessons, they do not concentrate them selves to themes and mostly, often do not listen to the teacher. According to this, at home they feel lack of knowledge and want to compensate this by searching for visual information. Also, boys feel pleasure when they are searching in the internet.

49-59

Authors: Edson Rodrigues Santana, Agnaldo Arroio

Scientific knowledge is a social construction gained over time; however it is possible that students do not have that understanding. According to Carvalho (2001) is possible that scientific concepts in many cases are not articulated to the daily lives of students and issues of social context. Based on an action research this work tries to detach the importance of making proposals of activities that bring together the scientific concepts with daily life issues of students. For this purpose we used the information and communication technologies, focused on the production of comics supported by computers. The problem presented to students was about the processes of soil sealing and the consequences for cities such as floods and droughts. The result allowed students to reflect in pairs and with teachers about these problems for their lives. Students were encouraged by the use of computers in a social context to articulated scientific concepts to communicate science. While the comics produced by students supported teachers to understand the process of student learning allowing the mediation’s inferences in Natural Science Education.

8-17

Authors: Dalia Prakapienė

Practical training is very important the modern society. Therefore it is recommended to study Natural Science in different environments through observing, exploring, comparing, experimenting and verifying one’s own hypotheses, etc. These activities can be realized not only in the traditional classroom, but outside class as well. Educational tourism is a educa-tional activity which is implemented through excursions, tours or trips, and helps to acquire knowledge and skills. One of the most popular forms of educational tourism is the educational excursion, whose importance in education is emphasised in general education programs. In pursuance of reasoning for the potential of educational tourism in Natural Science education, a research was carried out. The subject of the research was educational excursions in the national and regional parks of Lithuania. The aim of the research was to identify the educational activities in the regional and national parks of Lithuania and to establish the areas of Natural Science education in which the aforementioned activities could be applied. In total, 92 educational excursions, which develop skills in Natural Science education, were analyzed. The results of the research suggest that not all the national and regional parks in Lithuania have designed educational excursions and defined specific educational activities. The largest choice of educational excursions is in the national parks of Aukštaitija and Dzūkija, and in the regional park of Kurtuvėnai. The educational excursions implemented mainly focus on Natural Science and Biology subjects, with little emphasis on Physics. In terms of the Natural Science education areas, the largest number of the educational excursions are designed for Continuity and Diversity of Life and Organism and Environment; Biosphere and Man; however, only a few focus on Movement and Cognition of Force and Energy and Cognition of Physical Processes. The most popular activities offered by the educational excursions are discovering, observing, identifying and exploring.

30-37

Authors: Ramunė Švedaitė, Sigita Švedienė

The authors‘ of the article assumption that the majority of traffic accidents are caused by drivers – drug and psychotropic substances abusers – is based on the findings of the European Union DRUID Project. Drug addiction is spreading rapidly in Lithuania. The statistical data of the Drug Control Department under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania prove that the majority of drug abusers are young people of 20–39 years of age. Young people whose efforts and time should be directed towards education and studies. The authors focus attention on the increasing delinquency among drug abusers and the lethal outcome of the drug overdosage. However, it is not a specific national feature. This phenomenon is widely spread from both time and geographical perspective. The established in vitro methods of detection at major extent facilitate the struggle against drug abuse and distribution. In many European cities this method is already being applied when detecting islands of cocaine abusers by the chemical analysis of communal sewage, thus quantitatively identifying the concentration of benzoilekgonin - the stable cocaine metabolite. The article provides a description of the SYNCHRON CX test for identification of cocaine in urine produced by „Beckman Coulter“.

44-54

Authors: Irmeli Palmberg, Gunita Praulite, Janis Gedrovics

Students after graduating school must have both, knowledge and basic skills for active life-action, which includes their ability to evaluate their knowledge and skills for usability both in everyday life and in future. In this article knowledge of different problems within science education and its usability for future life, evaluated by the Latvian 12th grade students, has been analysed by using a poll, which has been previously approved in Nordic countries. Results show that Latvian students’ knowledge about different problems of human bi-ology is relatively higher than in other fields of science. On the other hand students demon-strate a lack of skills for generalization, therefore knowledge is sometimes insufficient. Only slightly more than half of students recognized their knowledge in science, obtained at school, as suitable for their future life.