중학생의 물리량에 대한 차수 어림 능력 분석 = Analysis of Middle School Students` Ability in Estimating Order of Magnitude for Physical Quantities

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In this study, we investigated middle school students` ability in estimation order of magnitude of physical quantities. Participants were 448 students of seventh graders and ninth graders in Seoul area. A multiple-choice typed questionnaire was designed for estimating five physical quantities such as length, mass, speed, volume, and density. The answers were analyzed through dimension of quantity, size of object, students` grade and their gender. In the results, more than two thirds of all participants chose the right order of magnitude in estimating length, but only around a quarter of them did so in estimating density. They had a tendency to show lower ability when they estimated order of magnitude of more complex dimensioned quantity. Moreover, students` answers had relatively wide distribution in estimating smaller sized objects. Though there was no big difference between seventh graders and ninth graders in estimation, male students were better in estimating base quantities, especially in length. However, more than half of participants did not choose the right order of magnitude in total and it showed their lack of qualitative understanding about these physical quantities and meaningless usage of units in measuring.