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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 11, Issue 2, Article 14 (Dec., 2010) |
Trainee science teachers’ ideas about environmental problems caused by vehicle emissions
E. Selcen DARCIN
Sakarya University, Faculty of Art and Science,
Department of Biology, Serdivan,
54187, Sakarya, TURKEY
E-mail: sdarcin@sakarya.edu.tr
Received 24 Nov., 2009
Revised 25 Sept., 2010
The purpose of this study was to determine students’ knowledge level and misconceptions about cars and environment. The sample group of this study consists of randomly selected students from Science Education Department of Gazi Education Faculty in Turkey. The measure is applied to total of 298 students where 174 of them are female and 124 are male. According to the results the majority of the students correctly realized that car emissions contribute to the greenhouse effect and acid rain; however they have some well-known misconceptions about the mechanism by which this occurs. A quarter of the students who saw cars as a source of global warming accept that this might happen via chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The major misconception, held by more than two-fifth of the students who realized that cars increase global warming, is that heat from car exhaust causes greenhouse effect. Half erroneously thought that carbon monoxide (CO) from car exhaust causes acid rain. A fifth of the students erroneously held the idea that cars contribute to acid rain by emitting CFCs. Most of the students erroneously thought that car exhausts damage the ozone layer. The dominant idea appeared to be that carbon monoxide from car exhaust is responsible for ozone layer damage. This study offers a useful warning to science educators about some of the learning problems.
Keywords: Environmental education; misconceptions; vehicle emissions; trainee teachers.
