University students constitute an important cohort for the supplement of voluntary blood donation considering their age and dynamism. With this study, it is aimed to find out Turkish university students' positive and negative opinions towards blood donation in addition to interpreting their motivators and barriers to this issue. For this reason, a qualitative study was conducted with a total of 141 students studying in one of the governmental universities in the west part of Turkey. Data were collected with the help of a semi-structured interview form which involved 10 questions and analyzed by means of content analysis. As a result, it was determined that university students possessed insufficient knowledge and misconceptions related to blood donation. Also, more than half of the students were found to not donate blood before. Being sensible was the most frequent reason stated by the students for donating blood. On the other hand, anemia was the main reason of not donating blood for females and fear was the main reason for males. In the light of the findings, it is thought that focusing on factors such as Red Crescent blood collection vehicle, blood collection stands at the university campuses and positive effects on health might play important role to turn university students into voluntary regular donors.

Physics is directly related to various professions since it is a fundamental science. Opticianry is one of such physics related professions. In this study, it was aimed to determine the conceptual understanding levels of opticians related to the concepts of light and optics which are directly related to their professions. In the study, which was conducted via mixed method, the participants were determined with the convenient sampling method. A total of 203 opticians attended the study. Data were collected with the help of Light and Optics Conceptual Evaluation Test in addition to the Open-Ended Questions and Concept Cartoons selected from the literature. As a result of the study, it was reached that the conceptual understanding levels of opticians were low with several misconceptions and insufficiencies related to the light and optics concepts. In the light of the findings, the importance of physics education for opticianry was implied.

The target of this study is to determine the minimum angle of deviation of a prism which is one of the optical experiments. Thus, the aim is to state the refractive index of a prism. In this context, the Tracker program, which might also be utilized in terms of distance education purposes, was preferred. The videos of the experiments were recorded with the help of a smartphone. The study showed that the refractive indexes of the prisms which were made of glass and acrylic with different apex angles could be determined with a high level of accuracy as a result of the analysis of videos which were recorded with two different methods. It is believed that the study provides insights for both the conduction of laboratory courses via distance education and for performing experiments for students who do not have access to proper laboratory equipment.

Öz: Bu çalışmada, üniversite öğrencilerinin bazı gaz yasaları ile ilgili geleneksel ve bağlam temelli problemleri çözebilme durumlarının incelenerek karşılaştırılması amaçlanmıştır. Bu kapsamda, zayıf deneysel desende bir araştırma gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışma grubunu, Türkiye'nin batısında bulunan bir devlet üniversitesinde, Fen Bilgisi Öğretmenliği Programı'nda öğrenim görmekte olan 30 birinci sınıf öğrencisi oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmanın verileri, bazı gaz yasaları (Charles Yasası, Gay-Lussac Yasası ve Boyle Yasası) ile ilgili 3 adet geleneksel ve 3 adet bağlam temelli problem içeren bir veri toplama aracı yardımı ile toplanmıştır. Elde edilen veriler, ilk olarak içerik analizine tabi tutulmuş ve bu analiz sonucunda öğrencilerin yaptığı çözümler, daha önce bu kapsamda geliştirilen bir rubriğe göre puanlanmıştır. Ardından, veriler nicel yöntemlerle analiz edilmiştir. Bu analizlerde problem çözümleri, ön test ve son test uygulamaları için her iki problem türü açısından parametrik olmayan istatistiksel testler yardımıyla karşılaştırılmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre, öğrencilerin Charles ve Gay-Lussac Yasası ile ilgili bağlam temelli problemlerin çözümünde, son testte, ön teste göre daha iyi bir performans gösterdiği bulunmuştur. Boyle Yasası ile ilgili bağlam temelli problem ile bu gaz yasaları ile ilgili tüm geleneksel problemlerin çözümünde ise son test ile ön test arasında performans açısından istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir farkın olmadığı belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca, öğrencilerin Boyle Yasası ile ilgili problem çözümleri hem ön testte hem de son testte problem türü açısından karşılaştırıldığında, herhangi bir farklılaşmanın olmadığı tespit edilmiştir. Bu çalışma, öğrencilerin doğru problem çözümü yapabilmeleri için birim çevirmenin önemini ortaya koymaktadır.

In this study, the kinetic friction coefficient for a block moving on an inclined plane was determined with the help of three different methods (a smartphone application, Phyphox, a video analysis program, Tracker and a simulation program, Algodoo) which can be performed easily using simple materials by the students. The results obtained from the experiments were compared with the theoretical results and each other. As a result, the advantages and disadvantages of three methods were evaluated and several recommendations were presented.