Abstract:

Water is a common study field of physics, chemistry, biology and environmental engineering and it’s indispensable for sustainability of ecological balance and lives of living things. Knowing well the physical, chemical and biological properties of water by students enables biological systems and working principles of cells to be understood better. The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of 9th class students at high schools about “Water and Life” and their misconceptions. The data of the research were collected via questionnaire forms applied to totally 60 students at 9th class of Kozakli Anatolian High School in Kozakli district of Nevsehir city (Turkey) belonging to 2010-2011 education year. In the first part of the questionnaire, the students were asked for 10 open-ended questions aimed at determining sociodemographic attributes of them. In the second part, on the other hand, a questionnaire including two-stage 10 questions was applied. For every question in the second part of the questionnaire, the students were desired to explain in written why the answer given in the first part of the questionnaire as true or false is true or false. The findings obtained were interpreted and opinions of students about “Water and Life” and their misconceptions were determined. Proposals were brought forward for learning cycle and how these misconceptions can be dispelled depending on it.

Keywords:

Secondary school, biology education, misconceptions, water, textboox.