The purpose of this study is to analyze the problems of rock specimens used for science education in elementary schools and to provide improvements of them. For the study, 20 sets of rock specimens were randomly selected from the five elementary schools in K city of Gyeongbuk Province and they were photographed and investigated. Also three elementary school teachers with more than 5 years of scientific career were interviewed. As a result, the sets of rock specimens that reflected the elementary curriculum were only 10%. The sets of rock specimens had many problems as follows: they were purchased a long time ago (up to 30 years), information presented in the nameplate and documentation was errorneous, some of rock specimens were too small and they did not show typical characteristics for education. In addition, the purchase and verification procedures of rock specimens were often neglected. With lack of interest and knowledge of teachers and lack of information about rock specimens, it was difficult to purchase good rock specimens for education. To improve the situation, a set of rock specimens should be verified by experts and should reflect the contents of curriculum and textbooks thoroughly. A manual of rock specimens is provided for science education in elementary schools.
The Korean terms of sediment grain size demonstrated in the 30 textbooks of elementary, middle, and high schools and university levels are compared and reviewed, and the problems of its use and alternative terms are proposed. The Korean terms of sediment grain size shown in the most textbooks are the translated terms of the Udden-Wentworth grade scale, and the different terms have been used in these textbooks. In the case of gravels, granule, cobble, and boulder have commonly been translated as wangmorae (king sand), janjagal (fine gravel), wangjagal (king gravel), and pyoryeog (drift gravel) or georyeog (large gravel), respectively. However, it is regarded to be reasonable that they are termed as janjagal, jungjagal (medium gravel), keunjagal (large gravel), and wangjagal, respectively. Adjectives such as 'maeu goun' (very fine), 'goun' (fine), 'junggan' (medium), 'gulgeun' (coarse), and 'maeu gulgeun' (very coarse), attached with each sediment name seem to be suitable to terms for sediments smaller than gravels. Silt has been commonly termed as misa (fine sand) in many textbooks, but it may be appropriate that silt is expressed as silt. Finally, mud, which is a mixture of silt and clay, should be named ito (mud) as shown in several textbooks including Dictionary of Korean Earth Science, though mud has been frequently termed as jinheug (slush or watery soil) in the most of textbooks for elementary and middle school students, and some high school and university textbooks.
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