• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.525-542
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• 2014

This study was performed to look into the difficulty of students in understanding science stories in 6th grade science textbooks and to analyze those factors. To do this, 6th grader (N=65) were selected from J Elementary School located in Gyeonggi-do Siheung-si as study subjects. 26 science stories in 6th grade science textbooks were classified by field and context (complement of knowledge, science history of scientists, science in life, cutting-edge science technology, environment issues) in which the characteristics were investigated and analyzed. Also, a survey about the difficulty in understanding science stories(26 items) was conducted(65 students) and a semi-structured interview was conducted for students to clarify the meaning of collected data from surveys(4 students). As result of analyzing surveys on science story context in science textbooks and interviews, 4 fields of 'energy,' 'matter,' 'life,' and 'earth' were evenly mentioned. Science in life and complement of science knowledge were mentions most for context and this had relation with the characteristic of science textbooks to provide many opportunities to apply learned knowledge in actual social issues. Reactions of students on science stories were mostly positive that they help studying science, but there was also difficulty in well understanding science stories. Difficulty of understanding context, problems of context suggesting methods, difficulty of science terminology, lack of interest, and etc. were analyzed as factors. Specific causes were mentioned to be description type class, unimportant context, lack of explanation on suggested context, problem of pictures by students.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.289-299
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• 2020

In this study, the definition, the level of difficulty, and the certainty of the understanding of 113 astronomy terminologies from 2009 revised middle school geoscience textbooks were examined. And through further interviews, the types of students' misconceptions about astronomy terminologies and their representative terms - examples of misconceptions were analyzed. The definitions of the terms presented by the students were largely classified as correct, low-level, and incorrect understanding. And low-level understanding was subdivided into high-level definition descriptions, undifferentiated concepts, and incorrect answers were subdivided into interference by scientific misconception and lack of prior knowledge. Given that the misconceptions due to terminologies can be distinguished from the prior misconception, the misconceptions due to terminologies can be effectively prevented by changing the term itself. In addition, students were aware of the advantages and disadvantages of metaphorical terms, and the recognition of their level of understanding is expected to be a good starting point considering that recognizing their own misconceptions is the first step in correcting them. Terminologies in science education is always an important subject of discussions, striving to select the right term according to the times, and scientific terms may change. It is expected that the results of this study will be the basis for discussions on the modification of terms.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.200-211
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze Korean middle school student achievement in environmental science based on the TIMSS 2003 (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), a student comparison of 46 participating nations. Korea ranked the fourth with a mean score of 554 in environmental science. However, all 3 environment science topics assessed in TIMSS are not included in the Korean science curriculum through 8th grade, even though they are included in most other participating nations' curricula. The average percent correct of items was analyzed according to the main topic, the item type and the cognitive domain. Items that showed differences between the average percent correct of Korea and the international average as well as differences between the average percent correct of boys and girls were further analyzed. Results revealed that Korean students performed better than the international average, especially in 'use and conservation of natural resources', multiple-choice items, and items requiring 'factual knowledge'. Also, male students demonstrated significantly higher achievement than female students. On the other hand, Korean students showed relatively lower achievement in constructed-response items, items that contained content they had not learned in science lessons and items requiring descriptions of the uses and effect of science and technology. Moreover, Korean student lacked understanding about acid rain, global warming, and ozone layer destruction. Korean female students showed relatively lower environmental conceptions and lower performance on items requiring data analysis than Korean male students. On the basis of these results, this study suggested that topics of environmental science be included in the science curriculum and taught in the science classroom to help middle school students more fully comprehend environmental issues.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to analyze about STS contents in the next generation science textbook for 10th grade according to curriculum revision 2007 and high school science textbooks focused on the Earth Science which were published according to the 7th curriculum. The contents of STS were analyzed by the STS topics of Yager(1989), Piel's standard(1981), and student activities by SATIS. The results of this study are the same as follows: 'The next generation science textbook' was shown that 20.9% is STS material amount in average by Yager's standard. 'High school science textbooks' were shown that 11.3% is STS material amount in average. Based on the STS topics by Yager's standard, most of STS content is focused on 'Relativity with local community', 'Application of science' and 'Cooperative work on real problems'. However, there is rare contents such as 'Multiple dimensions of science', 'Practice with decision-making strategies' and 'Evaluation concerned for getting and using information' in the next generation science textbook. In high school science textbooks were shown that 'Applicability of science' is the highest and 'Relativity with local community' is the next high contents. Based on the STS topics by Piel's standard, most of STS contents are focused on 'Environmental quality', 'Space research' and 'National defence' in the next generation science textbook. But high school science textbooks are focused on 'Natural resources' and 'Technology development'. The activities were analyzed by SATIS student activities. The major categories of activities included in the next generation science textbook were 'Investigation', 'Simulation' and 'Data analysis'. But, there were rare activities like 'Roleplaying', 'Research design' and 'Simulation' in high school science textbooks.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.495-505
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• 2008

The main purposes of this study are to: (1) to develop astronomy observation program based on a standardized coefficient decision program; and (2) to apply the developed program to after-school or club activities. As a first step, we analyzed activities related to astronomy in the authorized textbooks that are currently adopted in high schools. based on the analysis, we developed an astronomy observation program according to the standardized coefficient decision program, and the program was applied to students' astronomical observations as part of the club activities. Specifically, this program used a 102 mm refracting telescope and digital camera. we took into account the observation site's environment of the urban areas in which many school were located and then developed a the computer program for observation activities. The results of this study are as follows. First, the current astronomical education in schools was based off of the textbooks. Specifically, it was mostly about analyzing the materials and making simulated experiments. Second, most schools participated in this study were located in urban areas where students had more difficulty in observation than in rural areas. Third, an exemplary method was investigated in order to make an astronomical observation efficiently in urban areas with the existing devices. In addition, the standardized coefficient decision program was developed to standardize the magnitude of stars according to the observed value. Finally, based on the students' observations, we found that there was no difference between the magnitude of a star in urban sites and in rural sites. The current astronomical education in schools lacks an activity of practical experiments, and many schools have not good observational sites because they are located in urban areas. However, use of this program makes it possible to collect significant data after a series of standardized corrections. In conclusion, this program not only helps schools to create an active astronomy observation activity in fields, but also promotes students to be more interested in astronomical observation through a series of field-based activities.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.473-483
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics of students' academic achievement of middle school science curriculum achievement standards in the 2009 revised national curriculum and to generate implications for curriculum improvement. Based on the results of the 2015-2018 National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA), we analyzed middle school students' mastery of 84 curriculum achievement standards. In the analysis, we used representative item information by achievement level and correct answer rate and checked the validity of the determination of mastery. According to the results of the analysis, 15 of the 84 achievement standards could not determine the degree of achievement. In science, many achievement standards could be mastered only by above-average group students. By achievement level, there were six achievement standards that advanced achievement-level students did not achieve, 38 achievement standards judged to represent mastery by advanced achievement-level students, 23 achievement standards judged to represent mastery by proficient achievement-level students, and two achievement standards judged to represent mastery by basic achievement-level students. By content area, the number of achievement standards corresponding to advanced and proficient levels was similar in the areas of motion and energy and earth and space domains. In the material and life domains, there were more achievement standards corresponding to advanced levels. Accordingly, it is necessary to reinforce customized teaching and learning activities in relation to achievement standards that were under-achieved.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.157-171
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• 2024

The purposes of this study were: (1) to revalidate the revised Systems Thinking Measuring Instrument (Re_STMI) reported by Lee et al. (2024) among Vietnamese high school students and (2) to investigate the differences in systems thinking abilities between Korean and Vietnamese high school students. To achieve this, data from 234 Vietnamese high school students who responded to translated Re_STMI consisting of 20 items and an Scale consisting of 20 items were used. Validity analysis was conducted through item response analysis (Item Reliability, Item Map, Infit and Outfit MNSQ, DIF between male and female) and exploratory factor analysis (principal axis factor analysis using Promax). Furthermore, structural equation modeling was employed with data from 475 Korean high school students to verify the latent mean analysis. The results were as follows: First, in the item response analysis of the 20 translated Re_STMI items in Vietnamese, the Item Reliability was .97, and the Infit MNSQ ranged from .67 to 1.38. The results from the Item Map and DIF analysis align with previous findings. In the exploratory factor analysis, all items were loaded onto intended sub-factors, with sub-factor reliabilities ranging from .662 to .833 and total reliability at .876. Confirmatory factor analysis for latent mean analysis between Korean and Vietnamese students yielded acceptable model fit indices (χ²/df: 2.830, CFI: .931, TLI: .918, SRMR: .043, RMSEA: .051). Lastly, the latent mean analysis between Korean and Vietnamese students revealed a small effect size in systems analysis, mental models, team learning, and shared vision factors, whereas a medium effect size was observed in personal mastery factors, with Vietnamese high school students showing significantly higher results in systems thinking. This study confirmed the reliability and validity of the Re_STMI items. Furthermore, international comparative studies on systems thinking using Re_STMI translated into Vietnamese, English, and other languages are warranted in the context of students' systems thinking analysis.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_3
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• pp.1031-1042
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• 2023

In this study, a deep learning model was developed to predict the yield of cabbage and radish, one of the five major supply and demand management vegetables, using satellite images of Landsat 8. To predict the yield of cabbage and radish in Gangwon-do from 2015 to 2020, satellite images from June to September, the growing period of cabbage and radish, were used. Normalized difference vegetation index, enhanced vegetation index, lead area index, and land surface temperature were employed in this study as input data for the yield model. Crop yields can be effectively predicted using satellite images because satellites collect continuous spatiotemporal data on the global environment. Based on the model developed previous study, a model designed for input data was proposed in this study. Using time series satellite images, convolutional neural network, a deep learning model, was used to predict crop yield. Landsat 8 provides images every 16 days, but it is difficult to acquire images especially in summer due to the influence of weather such as clouds. As a result, yield prediction was conducted by splitting June to July into one part and August to September into two. Yield prediction was performed using a machine learning approach and reference models , and modeling performance was compared. The model's performance and early predictability were assessed using year-by-year cross-validation and early prediction. The findings of this study could be applied as basic studies to predict the yield of field crops in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.246-257
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to develop and apply three types SMART instructional modules about the mineral resources and investigate its effect. One hundred students in the experimental group and 111 students in the control group from 6 classes in the $1^{st}$ year of a girl's high school participated in this study. One unit of tablet PC was provided to every two students in the experimental group and three types of SMART classes were implemented in class. Teacher-centered traditional classes were carried out for the control group. The instrument designed to assess the level of students' interest in mineral resources consisted of 10 items using 5-point Likert scale. To investigate the level of students' understanding, 15 items were developed on the mineral, mineral deposits, and the development of mineral resources. In addition, the participants were asked to describe advantages and disadvantages of the classes using the SMART modules. Results are as follows. First, participants in the experimental group showed a significantly higher level of interest on the mineral and the mineral learning than those in the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of the desire to observe minerals and rocks. Second, students in the experimental group showed a higher level of understanding than the control group. The students with higher learning ability showed a significantly higher level of understanding than the lower group students. Third, the participants pointed out that the advantage of the SMART instructional modules was their experience in searching the relevant information and producing diverse outputs about mineral resource. On the contrary, the difficulties in coordinating opinions and decision making due to the excessive quantity of information were perceived as the disadvantage.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.268-275
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• 2005

One of the nonlinear statistical modelling, neural network method was applied to predict the Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies (SSTA) in the Nino regions, which represent El Nino indices. The data used as inputs in the training step of neural network model were the first seven empirical orthogonal functions in the tropical Pacific $(120^{\circ}\;E,\;20^{\circ}\;S-20^{\circ}\;N)$ obtained from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. The period of 1951 to 1993 was adopted for the training of neural network model, and the period 1994 to 2003 for the forecasting validation. Forecasting results suggested that neural network models were resonable for SSTA forecasting until 9-month lead time. They also predicted greatly the development and decay of strong E1 Nino occurred in 1997-1998 years. Especially, Nino3 region appeared to be the best forecast region, while the forecast skills rapidly decreased since 9-month lead time. However, in the Nino1+2 region where they are relatively low by the influence of local effects, they did not decrease even after 9-month lead time.