SOLO Taxonomy: Increased Complexity of Conceptual Understanding about the Interconnection between Convection and Natural Disasters Using Hands-On Activities

Abstract

Convection is an underlying concept that explains the occurrence of natural disasters such as storms, earthquakes and Tsunamis. However, in the middle school science curriculum of Thailand, convection and natural disasters are rather taught in isolation. In addition, hands-on activities that show the link between convection and the occurrence of natural disasters do not exist in the curriculum. Therefore, this study aims to develop a set of cost-effective hands-on activities to promote students’ conceptual understanding and their ability to link these concepts together. There were 101 ninth graders taking part in this pre-post experimental study. The result shows that based on a conceptual test, there was a statistically significant increase in the students’ mean scores after participation in the developed activities compared to before participation. In addition, there was an increase in complexity of conceptual understanding as there was a statistically significant shift towards a positive direction of complex understanding along the continuum of the SOLO taxonomy. It is therefore suggested to implement the developed hands-on activities in the middle school science curriculum to enhance students’ understanding of convection related to the occurrence of natural disasters.