Özet:

The aim of this study is to reveal how 6th grade students taking part in the research describe the concepts of ‘the Earth’, ‘the Moon’ and ‘the Sun’ in their minds before and after the activities conducted as part of the unit  “Our Earth, the Moon and our life source, the Sun”. The study group of the research constitutes the 6th grade students at a secondary school which is a transfer center for the secondary school students from the surrounding villages situated within Çumra town of Konya province in Academic Year 2015-2016. In the study, 19 female and 12 male, 31 students in total participated. Phenomenology pattern, one of the qualitative research methods, was applied in this study. Drawing technique was used as data collection tool in order to determine the students’ perceptions. The data collection tool was practised before and after teaching the unit “Our Earth, the Moon and our life source, the Sun” within Secondary School Grade 6 Science of Science Teaching Program Grade 3-8. All the students participating in the study were asked to draw a picture reflecting their ideas regarding the concepts of ‘the Earth’, ‘the Moon’ and ‘the Sun’. Beneath the pictures, they were expected to state what they wanted to express. Analysing the data; coding template and content analysis were applied for phenomenological study. The data, collected from the students by drawing technique, were classified with common codes and mind-maps were composed using “Inspiration 9” program along with the examples of students’ statements. In consideration of the acquired results, while 6th grade students participating in the study had lacking and pseudo-scientific concepts related to the subjects of ‘the Earth’, ‘the Moon’ and ‘the Sun’ before the application, most of the students were seen to express these astronomy concepts with more scientific terms, and their perceptions changed in scientific direction after the related unit taught.

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