• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.446-463
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• 2022

This study suggests the need for polar literacy education as an effective conceptual system to explain climate change in terms of science education in line with the common effort of humankind to respond to global environmental changes. To this end, we investigated the status of polar literacy in high school students through quantitative tests and qualitative interviews and discussed the resulting implications. A total of 329 high school sophomore students from two high schools participated in a test consisting of 25 true and false questions developed by referring to the Polar Literacy Principles, while 13 students agreed to be interviewed. The results showed that a somewhat insufficient understanding and conceptual gaps appeared regarding several areas of the Polar Literacy Principles. Knowledge of the geographic features of the polar regions was weak, and little was known about the components and key characteristics of the cryosphere. The lack of understanding of these concepts results in the inability of students to link the operational mechanisms of polar and global climate change sufficiently. While accepting unsatisfactory concepts in the school curriculum without criticism from outside media, students perceived the mechanism of climate change as somewhat monotonous or distorted. Moreover, linguistic information, analogies, and visual observation were used as cognitive strategies to compensate for the ambiguous understanding of polar and climate change. Based on the abovementioned results, we argue that polar literacy education should be introduced as a new knowledge system that can be used to aid a systematic and comprehensive understanding of climate change within the school science curriculum. Additionally, we suggest the following implications: review the consistency of knowledge related to polar literacy in other subjects, provide critical standards for out-of-school media information related to climate change, examine students' misconceptions, and identify improved thinking strategies.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.209-223
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• 2023

This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a polar literacy education program for elementary and middle school students, and to derive implications for new education to respond to climate change. We developed modular education programs based on the seven principles of polar literacy established by the Polar-ICE team. We divided them into two courses, one emphasizing science concepts and another emphasizing humanities and sociological issues. We then selected and structured detailed programs suitable for the two courses. These two courses were applied to 26 elementary and middle school students for approximately 69 hours in a Saturday science class hosted by the Department of Science Education at a university in Seoul. The 26 students were divided into three groups. Two groups completed the science education program for polar literacy and a humanities and social studies education program for polar literacy, respectively. The third group, the control group, received general science education unrelated to polar literacy. Before and after running the programs, all three groups responded to a polar literacy test and questionnaires that used vocabulary and presented scenes associated with polar regions. The test results were expressed using Wilcoxon signed ranks, which is a non-parametric test method, and improvements made upon completion of the program were analyzed. From a cognitive aspect, all three groups showed improvement after completing the program in the knowledge area; however, the experimental groups showed a greater degree of improvement than the control group, and there was a clear difference in the contents or materials explicitly covered. From an affective aspect, the difference between before and after the program was minor, but the group that focused on humanities and social issues showed a statistically significant improvement. Regarding changes in polar imagery, the two experimental groups tended to diverge from monotonous images to more diverse images compared to the control group. Based on the above results, we suggested methods to increase the effectiveness of polar literacy education programs, the importance of polar literacy as appropriate material for scientific thinking and earth system education, measures to improve attitudes related to the polar region, and the need to link to school curriculums.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.169-183
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• 2023

This study analyzed students' polar literacy in an effort to promote polar education based on its high educational value. The polar literacy test items developed for this study consisted of questions about knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs about the polar region, as well as background variables of students. The final test items, which were revised and supplemented several times through the preliminary test, were applied to 323 eighth graders in South Korea. We analyzed the response characteristics of the polar literacy questions for all students. Students were grouped into those with a global citizenship perspective and those with a pragmatic perspective, according to the viewpoint of polar issues and their polar literacy. Analysis showed that the students had a high understanding of climate change and living things in the polar regions, but had a very low understanding of ice, which is a key component of the polar regions. Moreover, they were unable to approach the Earth system thinking when dealing with polar issues. In addition, the global citizenship group had a higher intellectual understanding and deeper sympathy of the polar problem than the pragmatic group. This study is meaningful in that the survey results present a specific direction for future polar education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.19-32
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• 2022

The need for polar education was further emphasized, depending on the importance of the pole, which is the best place for climate change detection and prediction, and treasure trove of future technology and resources. Therefore, this study analyzed the general cognitive and affective characteristics of elementary school students' polar literacy, and in addition, analyzed the cognitive and affective characteristics according to the level of diversity about polar experience. The items developed for the study were revised through a pilot survey of 43 fifth graders. They consisted of questions about gender, polar experience, scientific literacy, polar knowledge, polar literacy skills, polar literacy beliefs, and polar literacy attitudes. The types of questions used are selectable, reliable, and Likert (4 points), for a total of 66 questions. The students who participated in the study were 323 fifth grade elementary students. The study found that students were more interested in the dramatic consequences of polar changes than the scientific causes and processes associated with it. This is confirmed through the fact that they are more interested in and familiar with polar creatures suffering from polar changes than understanding ice, which is the main feature of and the central mechanism of polar changes. Students also recognized the issue of polar climate change as a global issue other than their own. They believe that what happens in the Arctic and Antarctica will affect the whole world, but not significantly to himself and his community. The level of knowledge about polar region and the ability to analyze and infer were not significantly related to each other, and students with a higher level of diversity of experience about polar region had a better understanding of polar science and technology. In this research, it is meaningful to check the characteristics related to the students' polar region and to use it as a basic data to show the direction in which polar literacy education should proceed in the future.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.734-751
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to prepare basic data to reflect polar literacy education in the school curriculum. The perception about the polar regions, teaching experience, and polar-related cognitive and affective characteristics of teachers were investigated. The survey was conducted among 56 elementary, middle, and high school teachers from schools from 10 major cities and surrounding regions, based on their perceptions of the polar region, current teaching status, polar knowledge, and beliefs and attitudes toward polar region and climate change. Results showed that although teachers' polar information efficacy was low, they positively evaluated the status of educators in resolving polar and climate change problems, and prioritized global citizenship values over practical purposes. The experience of teaching polar region and climate change issues at schools varied across subjects and non-subjects, but showed a passive aspect in teaching development, such as wanting to be provided with consolidated learning materials. On the cognitive aspect, teachers revealed an ambiguous understanding of the mechanisms and processes by which polar change and climate influence each other. On the affective aspect, most teachers showed strong beliefs and attitudes for polar-related issues beyond the school level, but their behavior choices were relatively lower. Based on the results, we propose the following as recommendations: providing opportunities and materials to promote polar knowledge, discovering educational materials in various contexts to form values and attitudes, developing educational materials from polar research materials, identifying misconceptions about polar knowledge among students and teachers, strengthening elementary school teachers' polar literacy, and cultivating positive attitudes and values toward polar issues.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.717-733
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• 2021

This study is aimed to provide basic data to set the direction of polar literacy education and to raise awareness of the importance of polar research. Elementary, middle, and high school students' perception of the polar region was examined in terms of current status of polar information, impression regarding polar regions, and awareness of related issues. The study included 975 students from nine elementary, middle, and high schools, who responded to 16 questions, including close-ended and open-ended items. The results suggest that students had more experiences regarding the polar region on audiovisual media, but relatively limited learning experiences in school education. The impression they had of the polar region was confined to the monotonous image of a polar bear in crisis, following the melting of the glacier due to global warming. The students formed powerful images by combining scenes they saw in audiovisual media with emotions. In terms of recognizing problems in the polar region, the students were generally interested in creatures, natural environment, and climate change, but their interests varied depending on their school level and their own career path. The students highly valued the scientist's status as agents to address the problems facing the region, and gave priority to global citizenship values rather than practical standards. Based on the results, we suggest the following: introducing and systematizing content focusing on the polar region in the school curriculum, providing a differentiated learning experience through cooperation between scientists and educators, establishing polar literacy based on concepts that are relevant to various subjects, earth system-centered learning approach, setting the direction for follow-up studies and the need for science education that incorporates diverse values.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.201-220
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• 2021

The objective of this study is to increase awareness and interest regarding polar science and thereby aid in establishing the concept and future direction of polar literacy. To analyze the current status, textbooks based on the common school curriculum pertaining to polar topics were reviewed. Six countries that actively conduct polar science, namely Korea, France, Japan, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom, were chosen. Subsequently, 402 cases in 110 science and social studies (geography) textbooks of these countries were analyzed through both quantitative and qualitative methods. Based on the obtained results, the importance of polar research in geoscience education and the need for spreading awareness regarding polar research as an indicator of global environmental changes were examined. It was found that the primary polar topics described in the textbooks are polar glaciers, polar volcanism, solid geophysics, polar infrastructure, and preservation of geological resources and heritage. This demonstrates that the polar region is a field of research with important clues to Earth's past, present, and future environments and is also a good teaching subject for geological education. However, an educational approach is needed for systematically laying emphasis on polar research. The implications of this study are manifold, such as the establishment of a cooperative system between polar scientists and educators, extraction of core concepts for polar literacy and content reconstruction, discovery of new polar topics associated with the curriculum, diversification of forms of presentation in textbooks, and development of an affective image that is based on correct cognitive understanding. Furthermore, through the continuance of polar topics in textbooks, students can improve their awareness regarding polar literacy and polar science culture, which in turn will serve as the driving force for sustainable polar research in the future.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.599-616
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• 2020

Sea-surface temperature (SST) is one of the most important oceanic variables for understanding air-sea interactions, heat flux variations, and oceanic circulation in the global ocean. Extremely low SSTs from 0℃ down to -2℃ should be more important than other normal temperatures because of their notable roles in inducing and regulating global climate and environmental changes. To understand the temporal and spatial variability of such extremely low SSTs in the global ocean, the long-term SST climatology was calculated using the daily SST database of satellites observed for the period from 1982 to 2018. In addition, the locations of regions with extremely low surface temperatures of less than 0℃ and monthly variations of isothermal lines of 0℃ were investigated using World Ocean Atlas (WOA) climatology based on in-situ oceanic measurements. As a result, extremely low temperatures occupied considerable areas in polar regions such as the Arctic Ocean and Antarctic Ocean, and marginal seas at high latitudes. Six earth science textbooks were analyzed to investigate how these extremely low temperatures were visualized. In most textbooks, illustrations of SSTs began not from extremely low temperatures below 0℃ but from a relatively high temperature of 0℃ or higher, which prevented students from understanding of concepts and roles of the low SSTs. As data visualization is one of the key elements of data literacy, illustrations of the textbooks should be improved to ensure that SST data are adequately visualized in the textbooks. This study emphasized that oceanic literacy and data literacy could be cultivated and strengthened simultaneously through visualizations of oceanic big data by using satellite SST data and oceanic in-situ measurements.