• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2006

Students have often experienced difficulties in understanding the concept of the particulate nature of matter despite its importance in chemistry. Although various instructional methods have been suggested for teaching this concept, systematic studies have been rarely conducted. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of drawing and analyzing pictures. Three classes of 7th graders at a coed middle school in Seoul were assigned to the control group, the drawing group, and the analyzing group, respectively. Students were taught about the three states of matter and the motion of molecules for 8 class periods. The instructional effects on student conception, achievement, and science learning motivation were investigated by student visual learning styles. Results revealed that the scores of a conceptions test and a science learning motivation test for both the drawing group and the analyzing group were higher than those for the control group. Additionally, the scores of the science learning motivation test were also found to be higher for students with a more visual learning style than their counterparts.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.329-347
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• 2009

Science curriculums for elementary schools were, traditionally, developed to be balanced in content and contain equal proportions of the four branches of science: physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science. To develop a successful science curriculum, we asked some questions about how elementary students recognize these branches and about what they think of the domains of science in the science curriculum. Our study was designed to investigate how elementary students classify the domains of science in the curriculum. Previous research (Lee et al., 2001) seemed not to be successful, because verbal expressions in that research might be inappropriate for elementary students who were unaccustomed to the technical language of science. For this reason, instead of using only words, we developed image card instruments, made of picture duplicates of the introductory covers of each unit in the 3$^{rd}$, 4$^{th}$, and 5$^{th}$ grades' science textbooks. We asked students to classify these cards into their own categories and record the reasons for classifying them. The ratio and distribution of the units was then analyzed to identify their view of the science domains. 30% of the 4$^{th}$ grade students created the following categories: 'nature,' 'observation,' 'seasons,' 'living things,' 'sounds,' 'separating,' and 'the things necessary for everyday life'. In the case of the 5$^{th}$ grade, over 30% created the categories of 'living things,' 'weight,' and 'water.' Over 30% of the 6$^{th}$ grade created the categories of 'nature,' 'light,' 'water,' 'living things,' 'solution,' 'fire,' 'properties of an object,' and 'experiment.' Upon scrutinizing the above results, we discovered that the science domains selected by students into three types of domains: academic contents and concepts; activities related to a science class; and lessons and experiences in students ' lives. The last category was a new, complex kind of domain. We concluded that students did not utilize the four branches of science when constructing their own domains of science. Instead, they created many alternative domains, which reflected students' thoughts of and their experiences. The educational needs of elementary students suggest that when organizing science curriculum as 25 % allocation of the four science branches, newly-created domains should be considered.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.525-537
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate science integrated process skill of the students in science education center for the gifted. In order to do this, 'free-response test for the assessment of science process skills' developed by Yu-Hyang Kim(2013) was administered to 102 students(15 in elementary school science class, 58 in middle school science class I, and 29 in middle school science class II) who attend the program of science education center for the gifted in C university. The assessment tool measured 9 skills ; formulating inquiry questions, recognizing variables, formulating hypotheses, designing experiment, transforming data, interpreting data, drawing conclusions, formulating generalizations, and evaluating the designed experiments. As a result, the students in science education center for the gifted had relatively high scores in the area of 'formulating hypotheses' and 'recognizing variables', but they had relatively low scores in the area of 'transforming data', 'interpreting data', and 'evaluating the designed experiments'. The 2 items' percentage of correct answers were below 40% ; one is about a drawing a line graph in 'transforming data', and the other requires finding improvements of the experimental design in 'evaluation'. There was no significant difference between boys' scores and girls's one, and between the scores of students in the field of biology and those of students in the other fields(physics, chemistry, and earth science) in science integrated process skills. And there was significant difference according to the periods receiving the gifted education in 'formulating generalizations'. The teaching and learning has to focus on improving science integrated process skills in the program of science education center for the gifted and teaching and learning materials needs to be developed.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.167-173
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• 2005

Three different cDNAS for cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H) which are involved in the second step of the general phenylpropanoid pathway were isolated and designated as pc4h1 (1,755 bp), pc4h2 (1,655 bp), and pc4h3 (1,316 bp), respectively. The nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that both pc4h1 and pc4h2 clones encode polypeptides of 505 amino acids frame but pc4h3 clone was truncated at the 5'-end of coding region. The alignment of the deduced amino acid sequences showed that PC4H1 and PC4H2 are highly homologous (95.8% identical) with each other and contain three conserved domains which are typical in cytochrome P450 monooxygenase: proline-rich region, threonine-containing binding pocket for the oxygen molecule, and heme binding region. In addition, result of the phylogenic tree analysis revealed that both pepper C4Hs belong to Class 1. pc4h2 transcription was strongly induced in wounded fruit (400%) and root (200%) relative to its very low basal level but not in leaf or stem tissue. In case of pc4h1, the basal level of transcription was higher than pc4h2 but induction by wounding was lower in fruit and root while leaf and stem tissues did not respond to wounding. The basal level of pc4h3 transcripts was not, if any, detectable and response to wounding was not observed.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.78-83
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• 2012

The recommended species in fish acute toxicity test for pesticide registration in korea are common carp (Cyprinus carpio), killifish(Oryzias latipes) and loach(Misgurnus anguillicaudatus). But most of fish toxicity was evaluated using common carp. The common carp has several problems such as difficulty of room breeding, difference of sensitivity to breeding condition, limited experimental period, etc. For that reason, it is necessary to reexamine of test species. The present study investigated the sensitivity and correlation of $LC_{50}$ values that determined using the acute toxicity test with common carp and killifish. And this study is a realistic approach to evaluated appropriate species for fish acute toxicity test of pesticide. As a result, correlation coefficient(R) of the commom carp and killifish was high correlation of 0.8480 and the $LC_{50}$ values was not significant in the interspecies sensitivity. When the $LC_{50}$ values of common carp and killifish was compared with fish toxicity guideline in Korea, fish toxicity class has fluctuated in 18 pesticides with not very special tendency. Therefore, it is necessary to review of killifish has more advantage to standardization of fish culture and in the side of correlation and sensitivity of acute toxicity.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.287-295
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• 2002

In this study, the effects of a self-assessment on the students' science concept understanding and science-related attitudes were investigated. Student's perceptions towards the self-assessment were also examined. Five classes from a middle school in Gyunggi Province were chosen. Two of those classes were assigned to the control group that no self-assesment tool was applied to and the other 3 classes were assigned to the experimental group which a self-assess-ment tool developed for this study was applied to. The experimental group was further divided into two groups for imple-ment of two kinds of programs. One experimental group was provided some feedback such as solutions to problems and the other was not provided any type of feedback. The tests of science-related attitudes were administered before and after the instruction period. The science concepts understanding test was done only after the instruction. The results of this study were as follows. There were significant differences between the experimental group and control group in under-standing of scientific concepts. The enhancement of science-related attitudes was also higher for the experimental group. Providing feedback to students was more effective in the improvement of students' science-related attitudes. However, there were no significant differences in understanding of scientific concepts in relation to the feedback in experiment groups. From the above results, it was acknowledged thet self-assessment applied to the middle school science class showed considerably positive influences on the improvements of the understanding of scientific concepts and science-related attitudes.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.297-317
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of Science Social and Emotional Learning(SSEL). The factors of SSEL were suggested, and by utilizing them, the contents of middle school's science and Chemistry 1 textbook were analyzed. The factors are as follow: numeracy, information and communication technology, critical thinking, creative thinking, personal and social capability, ethical understanding, and intercultural understanding. The results showed that the 60~70% of textbooks put emphasis on numeracy, information and communication technology, critical thinking, creative thinking while some factors were limited in th contents, which were personal and social capability, ethical understanding, and intercultural understanding. Therefore, teacher should try to reconstruct the teaching and learning materials and fill in the deficiencies of SSEL factors through class activities. In addition, it is suggested to study specific application methods such as science activities or experiment activities in detail to meet social and emotional learning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.866-878
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• 2012

The Natural Science High School is specialized in vocational education or training related to natural sciences such as biology or chemistry. Therefore, natural science high school students are expected to possess a high level of science learning motivation. This study aims to explore natural science high school students' level and structure of science learning motivation by comparing students in general high school. One hundred ninety three students from a natural science high school and 208 from a general high school participated in this study. We administered a questionnaire that consisted of seven science motivation components: 1) career motivation; 2) science grade motivation; 3) understanding the relevance of scientific knowledge; 4) need for learning science; 5) self-determination; 6) self-efficacy; and 7) attitudes toward science class. We employed independent t-test, path analysis, bivariate correlation, and stepwise multiple-regression for the statistical analyses. Our findings illustrated that the natural science high school students' levels on all seven variables were significantly lower than the general high school students.' The path analysis illustrated that career motivation and science grade motivation had relatively stronger influence on self-determination and self-efficacy in the natural science high school student sample than in the general high student sample. The explanatory powers of four independent variables (career motivation, science grade motivation, understanding the relevance of scientific knowledge, and need for learning science) predicting self-determination and self-efficacy were 30% higher in the natural science high school student sample than in the general science high student sample. These results suggested that natural science high school students' science learning motivation may be easier to change by extrinsic motivations such as career and science grade motivation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.6039-6046
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• 2015

Aims: To investigate effect of metallic nanoparticles, silver (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as antitumor treatment in vitro against human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) and their associated mechanisms. This could provide new class of engineered nanoparticles with desired physicochemical properties and may present newer approaches for therapeutic modalities to breast cancer in women. Materials and Methods: A human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) was used as a model of cells. Metallic nanoparticles were characterized using UV-visible spectra and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Cytotoxic effects of metallic nanoparticles on MCF-7 cells were followed by colorimetric SRB cell viability assays, microscopy, and cellular uptake. Nature of cell death was further investigated by DNA analysis and flow cytometry. Results: Treatment of MCF-7 with different concentrations of 5-10nm diameter of AgNPs inhibited cell viability in a dose-dependent manner, with IC50 value of $6.28{\mu}M$, whereas treatment of MCF-7 with different concentrations of 13-15nm diameter of AuNPs inhibited cell viability in a dose-dependent manner, with IC50 value of $14.48{\mu}M$. Treatment of cells with a IC50 concentration of AgNPs generated progressive accumulation of cells in the S phase of the cell cycle and prevented entry into the M phase. The treatment of cells with IC50 concentrations of AuNPs similarly generated progressive accumulation of cells in sub-G1 and S phase, and inhibited the entrance of cells into the M phase of the cell cycle. DNA fragmentation, as demonstrated by electrophoresis, indicated induction of apoptosis. Conclusions: Our engineered silver nanoparticles effectively inhibit the proliferation of human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7 in vitro at high concentration ($1000{\mu}M$) through apoptotic mechanisms, and may be a beneficial agent against human carcinoma but further detailed study is still needed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.519-526
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of small group learning using smart devices in science classes on students' achievement, learning motivation, attitude toward science lessons, and perception of small group learning using smart devices. Four 11th-grade classes (N=133) at a coed high school in Seoul were randomly assigned to a control group and a treatment group. The intervention of small group learning using smart devices emphasized collaborative writing on activity sheet. The students were taught about acid, base, and neutralization reaction for six class periods. After the instructions, an achievement test, the learning motivation test, the attitude toward science lessons test, and a questionnaire on the perception of small group learning using smart devices were administered. Two-way ANCOVA results revealed that there was a statistically significant interaction effect by their previous chemistry achievement in the achievement test scores. Only low-level students in small group learning using smart devices significantly improved their achievement probably by having the opportunities to get help from high-level students. The adjusted means of the treatment group were significantly higher than those of the control group in learning motivation and attitude toward science lessons. Students' perceptions of small group learning using smart devices tended to be positive. Educational implications of this study are discussed.