Abstract
In this research, we developed a teaching material that helped fourth-grade elementary school students understand the concept of convection by linking temperature difference and movement. We also verified the effectiveness of our material through practice in class. The results clarified the following three points:. 1) The hot-air balloon teaching materials allow students to observe that they rise as the temperature difference with the surroundings increases due to heating, and that they descend when the temperature difference with the surroundings decreases due to heat dissipation. 2) The children who used the hot-air balloons understood the concept of convection by linking temperature difference and movement, and their understanding continued for about one month. 3) The usefulness of the teaching materials was high for the children, and the hot-air balloon was one of the most effective aids for children to understand the concept of convection concretely. From the above, it is suggested that the hot-air balloon teaching material developed in this research is useful to foster students’ understanding of the concept of convection by linking temperature difference and movement.
