Development and Application of STS Teaching-Learning Program for the chapter on ‘weather and living’ of a science class for elementary school student

The purpose of this study were to develop an STS teaching-learning program for the chapter on weather and living of a science class for fifth and sixth graders, applied the program and examined the effect. As 2009 revised curriculum goals of science education, to nurture scientific literacy of students in an information society by helping them acquire basic understanding of scientific concepts, develop research ability and scientific thinking so that they can solve problems in a creative way. In order to cultivate students scientific literacy, STS teaching-learning program might be appropriate to solve scientific problems in the empirical context, on the basis of mutual relevance. I developed an STS-based teaching-learning program for the chapter on weather and living of a science class, and applied it in an actual class. The chapter and weather elements were selected based on an analysis of goals of science education for elementary school students and key criteria for their academic achievements. A group of students who received a traditional lecture and a group of students who went through the STS teaching-learning program were compared, and a statistically significant difference in their attitude toward science was observed. Finally, the application of the STS teaching-learning program on the weather and living chapter turned out to have a positive effect on students’ attitude toward science.