A Case Study of a Teaching Methodology Used in Teaching Water Evaporation

Abstract

Our method of guidance for the understanding of the evaporation of water was applied to first grade students in a public junior high school. The method included a one-hour class learning in advance the principles of water evaporation followed by a two successive class hour program consisting of an experiment in which students measured the temperatures of water contained in an unglazed teacup and a glass beaker. This was followed by a discussion of the results of the experiment. Divided into to two groups, one set of the students in the control group were taught with the two successive class hour program, while the other group in the experimental group were taught with our method. We examined the effectiveness of our method of guidance by looking at the students' interests and understanding before and after the study program through questionnaires and with a worksheet for the two groups of students. The results indicated that students in the experimental group could explain the evaporation of water by use of illustrations and/or short sentences more correctly, and furthermore, they took a growing interest in the evaporation process and had a good understanding of evaporation, when compared with those of the control group. It is thus suggested that our method with a one-hour class learning in advance of the principles of the evaporation phenomenon followed by a two successive class hour program improves the effectiveness of the teaching process.