Earticle

A research and education program on the measuring the temperature distribution of an air around a candle flame was carried out. This program was prepared to help the eighth and the ninth grade students understand the basic concepts in optics such as refraction and interference of light, refractive index of gas media and the effects of temperature on the refractive index of an air. From the wave number differences between two light beams due to the candle flame on one path of the Mach-Zender interferometer, the temperature distribution was measured and the obtained two-dimensional average temperature distribution was found to be from 77℃ to 317℃.

In Korea, education for the gifted students in science has been carried out nationwide since the spring of 2002. Twenty five Institutes under University supervision were established since then, and special classes for the gifted students were assembled in several primary and junior high schools under the supervision of Provincial Office of Education. Instead of selecting students by conventional stepwise knowledge-based tests, Korean Government advised to screen students based on their performance in the classroom. Here we present a few guidelines of what to consider for screening the gifted students. In general, gifted students possess several virtues including intelligence, perseverance, originality, creativeness, and imagination. However, to excel in science there are more characteristics desired. Basic knowledge, tenacity to overcome hardship, lifetime interests and passion for science are among them. We will discuss how and why these properties helped the great scientists to succeed in the history through case studies. Some of crucial points are used as items for the checklist tables in judging students for their prospect to be scientists. Finally, we present two tables of checklists as examples which may be helpful in judging students of their scientific potentialities.

The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of parents and teachers about scientifically gifted students in Korea. An instrument that measures perception consisted of 34 five-point Likert-type items (scores range from 1 to 5), and categorized into six domains: curiosity and adventure, logical thought and word, commitment and responsibility, learning ability, leadership and reaction, and openness. Data were collected from 73 parents and 73 teachers of scientifically gifted students, which were taught in the Science Education Institute for the Gifted adjacent for University. The levels of perception were considerably high. The highest perception domain was learning ability for both parents and teachers, but the lowest was openness. Perception level of parents was higher than teachers’ in curiosity and adventure domain. There was no significant difference between parents’ and teachers’ perception levels in other domains (p < 0.05). For teachers’ perception, each domain correlated positively, and the correlation between the domains was significant. But, for parents’ perception, the openness domain didn’t correlated significantly with curiosity and adventure, logical thought and word, and learning ability (p > 0.05). Effectively to educate scientifically gifted students, gifted educational programs need to be designed considering perceptions of gifted students' parents and teachers about them.