Development and Application of an Experience Activity Task related to New and Renewable Energies and Energy Conversion in Middle School Technology and Home Economics

This study aims to develop an experience activity task that can be applied to real life to understand new and renewable energy and energy conversion in the unit of energy and transportation technology of middle school technology and home economics. In the preparation stage for the development of this experience task, the 2015 revised curriculum and relevant researches were reviewed to establish achievement standards and instructional goals, and the content of the textbook energy and transportation technology were analyzed. In the development stage, first, the ‘temperature difference generator’ and ‘electric refrigerator’ using thermoelectric device, which is the energy conversion device, were chosen as the subject of the experience activity task and the class model was designed as the experiential learning class strategy based on the problem solving approach. Next, an experience activity task on making temperature difference generators and electric refrigerators , that can pursue the understanding of renewable energy and energy conversion at the same time and to be applied to real life, was developed. Also, a teaching-learning process consisting of 8 classes, teacher study materials and student study materials were developed. Finally, the validity of these outcomes was verified by the related experts of 7 persons. The validity of the result was obtained with a score of 4.29 or higher for each of the 9 items on the 5-point scale. Reflecting the expert opinions, the task was improved. In the improvement stage, the preliminary test was applied to 12 students in S Middle School, and the results were reflected and corrected. Finally, the experience task was handled by 50 second grade students in S middle school. the results are as follows. The average response scores of the 5 items of 5 point scale were more than 4 points. It is revealed that this experience activity task improves the interest, understanding and attitude about new and renewable energy and energy conversion to most learners. Especially, they were interested in the fact that electricity is obtained by the temperature difference without electric generators and also interested in the principle of electric refrigerators.