Facilitating Conceptual Change in Students’ Understanding of Ecological Concepts
By Ozkan, Ozlem; Tekkaya, Ceren,and Omer Geban
“Facilitating Conceptual Change in Students’ Understanding of Ecological Concepts”
Publisher:
1/13
Pp. 95-104
2004
Facilitating Conceptual Change in Students’ Understanding of Ecological Concepts
Type: Empirical
Data collection method: Interview, Test
Number of subjects, range: Large — 31 or more
Grade and age of subjects: 6th-8th grade — 12-14 years
- Environment is places where living things exist because it includes plants and animals in it.
- Population is the number of people in a certain area, e.g., population of a city
- Ecosystem is the interaction among living things.
- Decomposers eat dead plants and animals to keep the environment clean.
- Decomposers are not important because they are found on dead animals
- Decomposers have no effect on ecosystems because they are too small to be seen by naked eye.
- The energy source for plants is soil because they grow in and feed on water and minerals found in the soil.
- There is no relationship between plants and animals in terms of energy because both plants and animals have their own energy.
- Energy does not pass from one organism to another because every living thing has its own energy.
- Food chain is a kind of feeding relation including different food materials such as proteins and vitamins.
- In a food chain including plant, insect, chicken and man, energy flows through man to plant because man has the greatest amount of energy.
- In a food chain including grass, sheep and man, man has the greatest amount of energy because he gets his energy both from grass and sheep.
- In a food chain including grass, sheep and man, man has the greatest amount of energy because he is stronger and has more energy.
- Among lion, rabbit and man, lion is the primary consumer because it is carnivore, wild and strong.
- Among lion, rabbit and man, man is the primary consumer because he consumes everything.
- A change in one population only affects another population if the two populations are related as predator and prey.
- A population located higher on a given food chain within a food web is a predator of all populations located below.
- If the size of one population in a food web is altered, all other populations in the web will be altered