• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.729-738
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• 2019

Research and Education(R&E) program has been emphasized for scientifically gifted students since it can improve scientific research abilities and problem solving abilities because it provides scientific research experiences with professional researchers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of R&E program on creative leader competency and science career orientation. For this study, 62 science high school students participated from 78 science high school students participating in an R&E program. Pre and Post surveys of creative leader competency and science career orientation were administered to the students. The results showed that R&E program improved students' creative leader competency in intellectual and affective characteristic. However, there are no differences in science career orientation because science high school students already had high science career orientation. The implications of this study were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.1431-1449
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• 2013

This study is based on the assertion that science museums should consider visitors' views and expectations as they are not satisfied in many cases. In this study, we investigated 31 scientifically gifted students and 177 science high school students about their image of science museums. Using the questionnaire, it was found that only 51% of students visited science museums; however, the average number of visits was 4.2. This means that students tended to re-visit after the first visit of the science museum. Students had a 'good' image of science museums when they incurred hands-on experiences and observed new, interesting, curious and funny exhibits. And students had a 'bad' image of science museums due to the following aspects: lack of new and interesting exhibits, information and guide, diverse contents, and hands-on experience; deficiencies in environment; and inadequacy of the management, operation and composition of exhibits. Therefore, they hoped that science museums will provide more hands-on experiences and experiments, new and interesting exhibits, systematic management and composition of exhibits, information and guides, and a good environment. So science museums need to pay special attention to aspects like management, information guides and environment for the first-time visitors. Based on the above results, we suggested "Directions for a good science museum based on students' views". While asking students what topics they wanted to know and learn in a science museum, each student was given the choice of four topics; eventually, 2.9 answers overlapped for each topic. When classifying students' topics into four main themes for the Gwangju National Science Museum, the order from the most popular theme to the least one was 'science in everyday life', 'ocean/space/future science', 'light and science', and 'culture, art and science'. Among the topics mentioned by students, only 37% are exhibited in Seoul, Gwacheon, Daejeon, or Gwangju science museums. We hope that the results and research methods will be used for evaluation, re-construction, and reinvigorated presentation of science museums.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes of students' modeling ability in terms of 'meta-modeling knowledge' and 'modeling practice' through co-construction of scientific model. Co-construction of scientific model instructions about astronomy were given to 41 middle-school students. The students were given a before and after instruction modeling ability tests. The results show that students' 'meta-modeling knowledge' has changed into a more scientifically advanced thinking about models and modeling after the instruction. Students were able to be aware that 'they could express their thoughts using models', 'many models could be used to explain a single phenomena' and 'scientific models may change' through co-construction modeling process. The change in the 'modeling practice' of the students was divided into four cases (the level improving, the level lowering, the high-level maintaining, the low-level maintaining) depending on the change of pre-posttest levels. The modeling practice level of most students has improved through the instruction. These changes were influenced by co-construction process that provides opportunities to compete and compare their models to other models. Meanwhile, the modeling practice level of few students has lowered or maintained low level. Science score of these students at school was relatively high and they thought that the goal of learning is to get a higher score in exams by finding the correct answer. This means that students who were kept well under traditional instruction may feel harder to adapt to co-construction of scientific model instruction, which focuses more on the process of constructing knowledge based on evidences.