THE IMPACTS OF STEM SUPPORTED SCIENCE TEACHING ON 8TH GRADE STUDENTS' ELIMINATION OF MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT "SOLID, FLUID AND GAS PRESSURE", AND THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS SCIENCE AND STEM

In the study, it was aimed to determine the misconceptions of 8th grade students about the concepts of "solid, fluid and gas pressure", to correct these misconceptions by using STEM supported Science activities, and to improve their attitudes towards Science and STEM. The study group consisted of 46 8th grade students at a public school in Ankara in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 school year. They were determined using the appropriate sampling method, one of the non-probabilistic sampling methods In the study, experimental method with pre-test-post-test single group model was used. The study was conducted with two experimental groups in order to increase the reliability of the research. The data were collected via the "Pressure Conceptual Understanding Test", “Attitude Scales towards Science and STEM”. The results revealed that the students had misconceptions about “Pressure" in the pre-test. It was also found out that STEM was useful to overcome the detected misconceptions, largely overcome the misconceptions existing in students, and the participant students' attitudes towards STEM developed at a positive level, whereas there was no change in their attitude towards Science.Bu çalışmada, sekizinci sınıf öğrencilerinin “katı, sıvı ve gaz basıncı” kavramları hakkındaki kavram yanılgılarının tespit edilmesi, bu yanılgıların STEM destekli fen etkinlikleri kullanılarak düzeltilmesi, fene ve STEM’e yönelik tutumlarının geliştirilmesi amaçlanmaktadır.  Araştırmanın çalışma grubu, olasılık temelli olmayan örnekleme yöntemlerinden uygun örnekleme yöntemi kullanılarak belirlenmiştir. Çalışma grubunu, 2018-2019 Eğitim-Öğretim Yılı Güz Döneminde Ankara ili merkez ilçesinde bir devlet ortaokulunda sekizinci sınıfta öğrenim gören 46 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmada ön test-son test tek gruplu modele uygun deneysel yöntem kullanılmıştır. Ancak araştırmanın güvenirliğini arttırmak amacıyla iki deney grubu ile çalışma gerçekleştirilmiştir. Veriler, “Basınç Kavramsal Anlama Testi”, “fene ve STEM’e yönelik tutum ölçekleri” ile toplanmıştır. Verilerin analizi sonucunda, öğrencilerin ön ölçümlerde “Katı, Sıvı ve Gaz Basıncı” ile ilgili kavram yanılgılarına sahip oldukları ve bu yanılgılarının genellikle günlük hayattaki kullanımlarından kaynaklandığı tespit edilmiştir. Tespit edilen kavram yanılgılarının giderilmesi için kullanılan STEM destekli fen etkinliklerinin öğrencilerde var olan kavram yanılgılarını büyük ölçüde giderdiği ve günlük hayata doğru bir şekilde aktarabildikleri ortaya çıkmıştır. Ayrıca öğrencilerin STEM’e yönelik tutumlarının olumlu düzeyde geliştiği görülürken; fene yönelik tutumlarında bir değişiklik olmaması dikkat çekicidir

Development of an Attitude Scale on Activities Related to Biology and Nature for Mentally Disabled Students

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable scale to determine the attitudes towards the activities that can be applied to the mentally retarded students about biology and nature. During the preparation of the draft form of the scale, an item pool was created from relevant literature. Then, these items were presented to expert opinion in terms of language, intelligibility and content. This draft scale with 30 items in 5-point Likert type was applied to 177 pre-service teachers studying in the special education department of the faculty of education at a state university. Item analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed for the data collected after the application. As a result of the analyses, it was revealed that the scale had a five-factor structure consisting of 20 items. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the factor structure was compatible with the data. Goodness of fit index values was sufficient. The Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient of the scale was calculated as 0.89. It can be said that the scale is valid and reliable in determining the views of pre-service teachers about the activities to be applied for mentally retarded students. In addition, the scale is suitable not only for teacher candidates, but also for use by teachers and researchers. In addition, different types of samples such as students in other fields at the undergraduate level and special education teachers who take courses related to special education can be included in the study group

Structural Evolution of the Babadag Fault Zone in Denizli Graben, South Western Turkey

The main goal of this thesis is to present the geometry and structural evolution of the Babadag fault zone, which is located at the southern margin of the Denizli Basin and separates metamorphic rocks in its footwall from sedimentary rocks in its hanging wall. The study also investigates the shear sense indicators that were found along the footwall rocks of the fault zone. The Babadag fault zone that controls the southern margin of the Denizli Basin is a steeply dipping normal fault. It contains two major step-over as displacement along the fault partitions westward. Deformation features in the Buyuk Menderes shear zone range from ductile-brittle and the early stage of the deformation during the extension was ductile. The fault rocks consisted ductile shear sense microstructures and brittle shear sense indicators, found in the fault rocks along the Babadag fault zone, indicate top to the north movement of the upper plate. These observations suggest to us that the prominent movement along the Babadag fault zone and its high-angle splays is top to the north.Boone Pickens School of Geolog

Comperative Analysis of Problem Posing Ability Between the Anatolian High School Students and the Public High School Students Located in Bagcilar District of Istanbul

AbstractThe purpose of this case study was to investigate the problem posing abilities of the “Anatolian High School” students and the “Public High School” students who had been studying in the Bagcilar district of the city of Istanbul.The methodology employed in the study was qualitative in nature. Document analysis method was applied. The participants, who had been successful for an exam carried out by a private course located in the district of Bagcilar of Istanbul, were including four “Anatolian High School” 11 th grade students and the other four “Public High School” 11 th grade students. In the research, students were provided with five different types of worksheets for problem posing Types of worksheets were including story editing, information translating, problem posing according to the previously defined equation, figure and result or conclusion. As a result of the study, two “Public High School” students could not accomplish the study concerning the problem posing according to the previously defined equation. On the other hand, the “Anatolian High School” students were much more successful than the “Public High School” students

Associations between mstn/haeiii polymorphism and reproductive and growth characteristics in morkaraman sheep

The myostatin gene inhibits skeletal muscle growth in advanced animals, and a mutation in the gene coding region increases muscle formation. Hence, it is accepted to be a candidate gene for the selection of some production traits. The objective of the current research was to examine the genotypes of the myostatin gene and reveal the associations between the genotypes and a number of traits, including birth weight, weaning weight, weaning age, average daily weight gain, and productivity, in 110 Morkaraman sheep. Genotypes were determined by the PCR-RFLP method using the HaeIII restriction enzyme, and the genotype frequencies were found to be 9%, 69%, and 22% for MM, Mm, and mm in the myostatin locus, respectively. The M allele frequency was 44%, whereas the m allele frequency was 56%. In the studied population, the myostatin locus was not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The association analysis revealed no statistically significant impact of the MSTN gene polymorphism in exon 3 on birth weight, weaning weight, and productivity (P>0.05) but found a significant effect on weaning age and average daily weight gain (P<0.05). As a result, the MSTN gene showed polymorphisms in Morkaraman sheep and can be regarded as a genetic marker for sheep selection according to the association analysis results

WS2 nanotubes as a 1D functional filler for melt mixing with poly(lactic acid) : implications for composites manufacture

Multi-walled WS2 nanotubes (NTs) with lengths ranging from 2 to 65 μm and widths from 50 to 110 nm were synthesized in a horizontal quartz-made reactor by a process yielding NTs with aspect ratios (ARs) between ∼40 and >1000. The NTs obtained were thermally stable in air up to 400 °C but were oxidized within the temperature range 400–550 °C to produce yellow WO3 particles. Critically, 400 °C is well above the temperature used to mix additives with the majority of melt-processable polymers. The hydrophilic WS2 NTs were easily dispersed in poly(lactic) acid (PLA) using a twin-screw extruder, but the shear stresses applied during melt mixing resulted in chopping of the NTs such that the AR decreased by >95% and the tensile mechanical properties of the PLA were unchanged. Although the as-extruded unfilled PLA was >99% amorphous, the much-shortened WS2 NTs had a significant effect on the crystallization behavior of PLA, inducing heterogeneous nucleation, increasing the crystallization temperature (Tc) by ∼3 °C and the crystalline content by 15%, and significantly increasing the rate of PLA crystallization, producing smaller and more densely packed spherulites. The reduction in the AR and the nucleating effect of WS2 NTs for PLA are critical considerations in the preparation, by melt mixing, of composites of rigid 1D NTs and polymers, irrespective of the target application, including bone tissue engineering and bioresorbable vascular scaffolds