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20 preservice teachers at college level participated in this study and interacted with students at elementary and middle school levels during science camp offered by science center in Taiwan. Preservice teachers displayed moderate (above the average, 4 point out of 5) understandings about scientific literacy and scientific views in all aspects of the nature of science before the camp. Then, the researchers designed science camp programs which were expected to promote students’ scientific literacy; scientific knowledge, inquiry skills for experimentation and for argumentation, affective domain such as the attitude of science and nature of science, and nature of science and the relationship among STS (Science-Technology-Society), all of which were embedded in the programs. Preservice teachers seemed to perceive scientific literacy pretty well (over 4 point) before the camp, however, preservice teachers’ understandings about scientific literacy were not scored much (around 3 point, but still moderate scores of average) as expected after concrete inquiry activities. The reasons why this happened could be that preservice teachers were not trained to employ theory into the context to be more practical or the researchers did not develop camp program which embedded the aspect of scientific literacy successfully. The discussion and implication were made in teacher education in that preservice teachers must be prepared how to bridge theory into practice, and informal science education in that educators at science centers must be trained to be experts in providing the envisioned educational programs to meet the goal of science education, scientific literacy.

The purpose of this research is to examine the current state of inserting illustrations in science textbooks under the 7th Revised Educational Curriculum which is currently enforced in all grades of elementary schools, and to compare and analyze the external and internal differences in illustrations in science textbooks of elementary schools in Singapore and Korea and to present desirable direction of producing illustrations. There are not only some differences in rate of the kinds and role of the illustrations in grades, but also in both countries. For example, in the case of illustrations for motivation, in both Korea and Singapore, interesting photos related to overall contents with regard to the contents of the unit are used. But in the 3rd and 4th grade class in Singapore, story types of cartoons related to learning subjects are presented to draw students’ interest and attention. These need to be considered when developing textbook illustrations in the future.

This research examined the elementary students' level of motivation to learn science and analyzed correlation between scientific experiences and the motivations to learn science. 216 of elementary students in the 5th grade and 207 of elementary students in the 6th grade were surveyed with questionnaire composed of Likert criteria and scientific motivation questionnaire(SMQ), and the results were analyzed by SPSS 18.0 statistics program. The results of this research are as following : First, elementary school students' level of scientific experiences appeared quite low, and boys appeared to have more scientific experiences than girls. For more specific areas, the experiences were more from outside of school rather than inside, and experiences from science class. Second, elementary students' level of motivation to learn science stood relatively high, and boys showed higher level of motivation to learn science than girls. For more specific areas, the level of motivation from internal motivation area was the highest and the lowest was that from the area of anxiety about exams. Third, the scientific experiences and motivation to learn science showed highly static correlation. Experiences both from inside and outside of the school were significantly correlated to the motivation to learn science, and those from outside of the school had higher correlation with the motivation to learn science. Therefore, the scientific experiences should be recognized to play an important role for improvement of the level of motivation to learn science, and the efforts should be made to provide the elementary students with high-quality scientific experiences to develop their level of motivation to learn science.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the conceptions about altitude of the Sun of elementary students according to differences by the spatial ability. In this study through the qualitative analysis, 4 students who were similar understanding levels of concepts to altitude of the Sun and differences by the spatial ability were selected out of 75 in 6th grade elementary located in Sunchang, Jellabuk-do Province. 4 students for the qualitative analysis were selected by the test instrument of spatial ability and altitude of the Sun. The results of study was students with higher spatial ability were higher understanding levels of concepts to altitude of the Sun. However, both of student with higher and lower spatial ability showed a false concept to the expanded concepts into outer space like a cause of seasonal change, change of altitude of the Sun by latitude unlike the intution. Students with lower spatial ability didn't form the scientific concepts, not only a cause of seasonal change and change of altitude of the Sun but also difference of energy density by altitude of the Sun. A student of two with lower spatial ability has been impediment strongly to form the scientific concept by the false concepts to the distance. The findings were as follows; Learning to altitude of the Sun regardless of the difference of spatial ability should be learned to interact to the intution, celestial movement and model experiment. To students with lower spatial ability should be developed teaching methods to understand the relation between the Sun and celestial movement.

The purpose of this study was to investigate a motivation system about science learning and interest in science among elementary, middle & high school students and analyze on the their relations. For this, the questionnaires on interest in science that developed by Kind et al., (2007) were selected and translated. After that, second-grade 80 students, fourth-grade 87 students, sixth-grade 107 students, eighth-grade 123 students and eleventh-grade 128 students were required to accomplish a questionnaire on behavioral inhibition system/behavioral activation system about science learning (SL-BIS/BAS), interest in science. Based on these materials, SL-BIS/BAS by student’s variables and relations of between the system to interest in science have been analyzed. The result of this study shows the followings. First, the sensitivity about SL-BIS was no significant difference in School levels. But sensitivity about SL-BAS and interest in science in elementary and high school was higher than it in middle school. Second, there were low negative correlation with SL-BIS and interest in science, and relatively high positive correlation with SL-BAS and interest in science. Through the results of this study, relations of motivation to related variables, and the motivation by student’s variables are identified. These results would be helpful for teachers to understand the difference about motivation by students’ variables and to make a plan for the appropriate strategies for learners.

Prezi, which is an implemented software in the form of flash-based online presentation, is considered to be a new appropriate smart-learning tool. This study aimed to investigate an impact of project learning utilizing Prezi on the creativity, attitudes toward science and science process skills of scientific gifted children in elementary school. The results of this study were as follows; First, after project learning utilizing Prezi, their creativity was raised meaningfully, especially in sub-elements of patience, adaptability and variety of interestings. Second, project learning utilizing Prezi showed meaningful effect on their improvement of science process skill, especially in integrated science process skills. Third, project learning utilizing Prezi improved their attitudes toward science meaningfully. In almost sub-elements, except the element of ordinariness of scientist, positive meaningful improvements were showed.

The aim of the study is determined to find out how elementary science localization teaching strategy would influence environmental perception of students. In order to fulfill the research purpose, a total of 51 fifth graders from two classes in M Elementary School in U City were divided into a 26 of experimental group and a 25 of comparative group. The study was carried out from September to November of 2012. For the experimental group, an elementary science localization classes were conducted while for the comparative group, a general science classes were performed. The results of the research are presented as follows. First, it was learned that the experimental group with the elementary science localization class would have a significantly and statistically high environmental sensitivity comparing to that of the comparative group. That proves the elementary science localization class’s being efficient at improving the students’ environmental sensitivity. Second, the experimental group with the elementary science localization class turned out to have a significantly and statistically strong will to protect the environment than the comparative group would do. Such finding says that the elementary science localization class is helpful to enhance the students’ will to preserve the environment. In conclusion, the study came to understand that the elementary science localization teaching strategy can improve the environmental perceptions of the students for such elementary science localization class would efficiently encourage environmental interest of the students.

The study aims to figure out pre-service elementary teachers’ knowledge understanding on ‘stratum and rock’ as well as teaching-learning types on the same topic. A total of 65 seniors in an advanced science education course at B University of Education joined the research to fulfill the purpose above. With PCK classification framework, the study examined pre-service teachers’ knowledge understanding on ‘stratum and rock’ while it analyzed how the teachers would teach the given topic to students. The results of the study are presented as follows. First, it was observed that the pre-service elementary teachers have a great understanding on ‘stratum and rock’ that would be taught via a science textbook for elementary fourth graders. However, regarding terms in ‘shale and limestone’, they appeared to have a relatively short understanding. Second, PCK elements of the pre-service teachers related to ‘stratum and rock’ were analyzed and according to the results, the teachers would be interested in teaching model selecting in the teaching-learning strategy field while they would be well aware of how important it is for them to perform an experiment in a teaching process. The teachers also appeared to understand that the teacher question can be mutual complementary during class. However, it turned out that the teachers would have a very much low understanding on learners’ prior knowledge as they particularly believe that learning could be significantly affected by the learners’ perception level as well as their learning interest and motive. Third, the pre-service elementary teachers were told to design teaching plans on ‘stratum and rock’ so that the study could find out what learning-teaching methods the teachers would adopt to teach the topic. It was learned that the teachers would proceed with the class basically by giving the learners a descriptive explanation on the topic and also by using pictures and drawings to enhance the learners’ understanding during the class.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the Project based STEAM program on primary students' Problem solving process and creative personality. Based on the concept of project based learning and STEAM derived from a literature review, a learning program has been developed and applied to 28 elementary 4-6th students. Problem Solving Process and Creative personality tests were conducted before and after Project based STEAM program lessons. The results of this study are as follows. (1)Project-based STEAM was affected all components of problem solving process. (2) Project-based STEAM was affected all eight components of creative personality positively, (3) after using Project-based STEAM was good reaction by students. As a result, the elementary science class with Project-based STEAM had problem solving process for positive educational effect and creative personality. it means the science class with creative personality has potential possibilities and value to develop problem solving process and creative personality.