• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.453-463
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• 2008

This study investigated the students' perceptions of environmental scientists and their work and the factors influencing the students' images of them by using the Draw-An-Environmental-Scientist-Test (DAEST). The DAEST was administered to 413 students in 10th and 11th grades selected from three high schools in Seoul. The results revealed that the students' images of environmental scientists were different from the stereotypical images of scientists. In the students' drawings, it was difficult to distinguish the gender and age of environmental scientists. Most students also perceived environmental scientists collecting data on environmental pollution by using experimental equipments and a laptop computer in the field. The students answered that the factors affecting their images of environmental scientists were mass media, school education, internet, and so on. According to the students' grade and gender, there were differences in the perceptions of environmental scientists and their work, and there were factors that influenced their images. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.31 no.5 s.86
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• pp.431-443
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• 2005

This study was performed to investigate the perceptions of the opinion leaders, such as government officials, researchers, NGO workers, and journalists on the risks of endocrine disrupters (EDs) and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as well as the related policies on these two hazards or potential hazards. The opinion leaders generally considered the EDs as the most serious hazard among twenty-one environmental health hazards in Korea, and agreed that the EDs would continuously be the most serious hazard. On overall average, the GMOs were ranked the 11th among the twenty-one health hazards. Further investigation indicated that the GMOs were variously ranked by the group of respondents: they were ranked the 2nd by the NGO workers, the 7th by the journalists, the 9th by the researchers and the 11th by the government officials. In general, the respondents considered the dioxin as a hazard with the highest risk while the GMOs were considered less hazardous. The opinion leaders considered that although the risks of the GMOs and EDs were not fully verified, the risks should be controlled through the legislation. The EDs and GMOs should be separately regulated for the time being, while the EDs should put under more strengthened regulation. It is recommended that a web-site containing the information on the EDs and the GMOs be prepared for the journalists. In addition, a training program in relation to the EDs and the GMOs needs to be organized by the Korean Press Foundation and the Korea Food and Drug Administration to educate the journalists. A committee consisting of government officials, scientists, and NGO workers needs to be established, and it should provide framework of future policies and public relations programs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.136-136
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• 2017

In agriculture, the rice is the one of important things. Many farmers and scientists have long tried to increase the yield of rice. So many technologies have been developed these days. One type of technology has given rise to a host of concerns and questions, namely Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The increasing cultivation of GM crops has raised a wide range of concerns with respect to food safety, environmental effects and socio-economic issues and now commercially planted on about 100 million hectares in some 22 developed and developing countries. The scientific evidence concerning the environmental and health impacts of GMOs is still emerging, but so far there is no conclusive information on the definitive negative impacts of GMOs on health or the environment. Nevertheless, public perceptions about GMOs in food and agriculture are divided with a tendency toward avoiding GM food and products in many developed and developing countries. Also Korea is one of that country and is not allow the GMOs now. So I studied whether these GMOs are actually dangerous for environment and whether there are differences in cultivar characteristics such as germination test with TTC tetrazolium, germination test in frozen soil and gene-flow test with glufosinate and strip-bar test. With these experiments, we evaluated the agricultural safety of GM rice and to identify and assess environmental risks.