The Development of Students' Scientific Perspectives on Historical Heritages through the Science Field Trip of Hwasong Fortress

Science field trip on historical heritages in Korea has developed since 1998. There are a few discussion of effectiveness of science field trip on historical heritages. In this research, the aim of science field trip on historical heritages was discussed in view of developing scientific perspectives on historical heritages with cases of science field trip of Hwasong fortress. Material for science field trip of Hwasong fortress was developed and instructional strategy was designed. The material contained convergent and divergent scientific inquiry activities. The goal of the activity was to help students to build scientific perspectives on the historical heritage, so they can evaluate the scientific excellency of historical heritage. The subjects were ten ninth grade students of middle school science club in Seoul. A questionnaire, "evaluation of scientific excellency of historical heritage" was administered before and after the field trip. From the analysis of a change in perspective by field trip, it was investigated how the scientific perspective on historical heritages was developed. The first draft of material for science field trip of Hwasong fortress was developed based on science education experts' discussion. The material has three parts; activities before the trip, activities during the trip and activities after trip. Instructor's guide has the same structure. Before the field trip, students watched the videotape and learned the short history lesson about Hwasong fortress to develop familiarity. During the trip, there were exploring stage and intensive inquiring stage. These activities were designed to develop scientific perspective on historical heritage. After the field trip, evaluation activity about scientific value of Hwasong was done based on the activities done during the trip. After the science field trip of Hwasong fortress, most of students showed positive changes. Some of them reflected on their previous thoughts. Some recognized the necessity of the proper criteria for scientific excellency of historical heritage. All changed in their perspective on evaluating scientific aspects on historical heritage, such as considering the social environment, scientific principles and the influence of science and technology of that age on the society, when the fortress was built. These results show that the science field trip focused on the criteria for evaluating the scientific excellency of historical heritage was significant in helping students to develop the scientific perspective on historical heritage.