• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.639-649
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to figure out how teachers conduct an experiment in measuring the size of the Earth and how students recognize it. For this study, an in-depth interview was conducted one week after the lesson on the experiment about measuring the size of the Earth. The participants were five secondary school teachers and five secondary school students. The in-depth interview was recorded and transcribed. The result of the interview was drawn through an inductive categorized analysis method. As a conclusion of this study, the teachers taught the students the lesson using alternate angles instead of using the altitude of the Sun. Their lessons were based on Eratosthene's story or some related illustrations suggested in the textbook and not based on an explanation of the principle. Also, students measured the Earth's size only by using alternate angles and didn't understand the meaning of the shadow in the experiment. The results of this study show that teachers need to reconstruct the textbook and understand the accurate experimental principle for the students to have a meaningful experience of the experiment on measuring the size of the Earth.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.901-907
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to analyze methods for measuring the size of the Earth, put forth in 6 different Korean 8th grade science textbooks. The research questions are as follows: 1) Do they adequately map out the experiments for measuring the size of the earth by using the concept of the sun's altitude? 2) Do they reduce the size of the sun like as the Earth is similarly downsized to the globe? 3) Do they suggest the precise experimental conditions for selecting two equal longitudinal spots for measuring the size of the earth? 4) Do they design adequate experiments for exact measurement? 5) Do they offer a proportional expression for seeking the size of globe which is easily understood by students? 6) Do they develop experiments to measure actual size of the earth? Four graduate students and one researcher took part in this study. All conditions were unanimously agreed upon by the participants. The results are as follows. First, one publishing company must include the concept of the sun's altitude to accurately measure the size of the Earth. However, some textbooks fail to mention this. As such, the concept of the sun's altitude must be introduced to accurately measure the size of the Earth. Second, a reduced size globe is used as the actual earth so; the sun should be factored in with a reduced light value. Third, you have to lay a stress on two points at the same longitude. In other words, a shadow located at the same longitude from two randomly selected points. Most textbooks mention two points at the same longitude but two of them design the experiment with a shadow at the same longitude. Fourth, we need a method to precisely measure the angle between a stick and its shadow. The angle between the stick and the tip of its shadow is the sun's altitude difference. Fifth, we need to present more specific proportional expressions for calculating the size of the globe. Only 3 out of the 6 texts employed a proportional expression. Sixth, we need to calculate the size of the earth by accurately presenting the scale of the globe to attain the goal of the experiment. Two of the texts analyzed, designed the experiment for the purpose of calculating the size of the globe. Three of the texts designed their experiments to calculate the radius of globe which is not even relevant to the purpose of experiment.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.518-537
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• 2019

This study examined the implications of a place-based earth science program integrated with Mathematics. 11 pre-service earth science teachers and 22 middle school students participated in the service education activities of earth science for 30 hours focusing on the measurement of the earth's size through earth science experiments as part of the middle school curriculum. In order to minimize errors that may occur during the earth's size measurement experiments using Eratosthenes's shadows length method of the ancient Greek era, the actual data were collected after triangulation ratios were conducted in the locations of two middle schools: one in remote metropolitan and the other in rural area. The two schools' students shared the final estimate result. Through this process, they learned the mathematical method to express the actual data effectively. Participants, experienced the importance and difficulty of the repetitive and accurate data acquisition process, and also discussed the causes of errors included in the final results. It implies that a Place-Based Earth Science Program activity can contribute to students' increased-understanding of the characteristics of earth science inquiry and to developing their problem solving skills, thinking ability, and communication skills as well, which are commonly emphasized in science and mathematics in the 2015 reunion curriculum. It is expected that a place-based science program can provide a foundation for developing an integrated curriculum of mathematics and science.