Özet:

The purpose of this study is to investigate 8th grade middle school students’ knowledge in reading, interpreting, and drawing line graphs in heat-temperature unit. 157 eight graders attending a public school in Ankara, Turkey, voluntarily participated in the study. A test composed of 14 open ended items was administrated to the students after the heat-temperature unit was taught at the beginning of the spring semester in 2013-2014 academic year. Content analysis method was used for data analysis. The findings showed that the students correctly answered slightly more than half of the questions in the test with a mean score of 51.3 out of 100. Based on the findings, we inferred that students encountered difficulties in reading and interpreting graphs provided in the unit of heat and temperature. For instance, students had difficulties in calculation of temperature difference. With this respect, only a small percentage (15%) correctly subtracted negative integers. Moreover, students had difficulties in drawing heating and cooling curves. Overall findings emphasized that we need further research on the integration of the disciplines of science and mathematics.

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