- Thesis topic: Preliminary Study on Integrating Mathematics into Air knowledge Teaching

- Doi: https://doi.org/10.6840/cycu202000602

- Abstract: 

      Current environmental education mostly focuses on the development of knowledge and activities related to ecological conservation. In recent years, air pollution issues have received more and more attention, but air pollution-related knowledge is relatively lacking in elementary school teaching material. At present, in the natural science teaching material of the elementary school, there is no natural science teaching material in the first and second grades, and natural teaching lesson is from the third grade, and the content of air-related knowledge is fragmentary, not continuous. Therefore, this research attempts to incorporate mathematics into the air knowledge teaching materials and integrates the basic knowledge of air composition into the numerical concepts of the lower grades, and fraction and percentages lesson in the middle and higher grades, and then assessing the relevance of this teaching method to students’ learning of air knowledge and mathematics.
       In this study, pre experimental design methods and mixed methods were adopted. The research objects are lower grades, middle grades, and higher grades students of Elementary School in New Taipei City. The researcher designs teaching material corresponding to each grade for teaching and use of video records and observations, feedback, activity records, pre- and post-tests, oral expressions, and other diverse materials in teaching are used to understand the teaching process and effectiveness. In addition, the pre experimental design method mainly focuses on students to analyze and compare the before and after tests. The mixed-method uses qualitative data and quantitative data for analysis, and then further uses the paired-sample t-test in statistics to detect the overall effectiveness of the teaching for an overall evaluation.
       The results show that in the qualitative analysis, the integration of air knowledge in mathematics questions can help students learn more air knowledge when they read the exam questions. This method can be applied to the teaching and question design of various subjects, and integrate into teaching can expand the learning reach of children. The results after applying the teaching material showed that, lower grades of elementary school students have a certain degree of growth in the concept of air knowledge, and middle and higher grade students can also find an increase in the concept of air knowledge inability in the math test, which is statistically significant. It can be concluded that the air knowledge related teaching materials designed by the researcher, it can help students to apply the abstract concepts of mathematics into concrete, and it is also helpful for the students to improve their knowledge of air knowledge. This kind of teaching method of integrating mathematics into air knowledge can provide teachers with reference for future on-site teaching.

Keywords: Environmental education, Pre experimental design, Air knowledge