Abstract
The purpose of this study is to acquire basic information in order to develop a fourth grade science lesson about how water is heated in a beaker. First, we investigated how university students enrolled in either the Science course (N=30) or the Liberal Arts course (N=28) expressed their thoughts about how water is heated. Second, we developed a trial lesson based on the findings and investigated whether the trial lesson would be acceptable to university students taking the Science Education course (N=79) and elementary school teachers (N=51). The newly developed trial lesson used both Thermo Ink and Thermo Ikura heat detectors to measure the temperature of water. The Thermo Ikura also shows the convection current produced when water is heated.
The major findings of this study are that
(1) The university students in the Science Course could not correctly explain how water is heated.
(2) The newly developed trial lesson was acceptable to both the university students in the Science Education course and to the elementary school teachers.
(3) The Thermo Ink heat detector is convenient for showing the temperature development of water, while the Thermo Ikura detector shows both water temperature measurements and convection currents. As a result, both Science Education students and elementary school teachers were able to correctly explain how the temperature of water changed and how the convection current developed during the course of the experiment.
