The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice teachers’ understanding of democratic citizenship. This study utilized the democratic citizenship frame to assess 17 participants’ comprehension of this concept. The researcher designed a method course where participants in groups analyzed science activities to identify democratic citizenship components. Through the analysis of two science activities—one on energy and the other on climate change—and the development of science panels addressing various global issues, preservice teachers' understanding of democratic citizenship was enhanced. Preservice teachers showed a good understanding of critical thinking, communication and collaboration, and STS (science, technology, and society); and the most enhanced understanding of empathy, which was the least perceived in pre-survey, component of democratic citizenship. The democratic citizenship frame proved to be a valuable tool for teaching and learning this topic, particularly when applied to socioscientific issues in the classroom. More research-based revisions of the science curriculum are necessary, and more systematic practices with reflections are essential in teacher education.

The demand for chiller equipment that keeps each machine at a constant temperature to maintain the best possible condition is growing rapidly. PID (Proportional Integral Derivation) control is a popular temperature control method. The error, which is the difference between the desired target value and the current system output value, is calculated and used as an input to the system using a proportional, integrator, and differentiator. Through such a closed-loop configuration, a desired final output value of the system can be reached using only the target value and the feedback signal. Furthermore, various temperature control methods have been devised as the control performance of various high-performance equipment becomes important. Therefore, it is necessary to design for accurate data-driven temperature control for chiller equipment. In this research, support vector regression is applied to the classic PID control for accurate temperature control. Simulated annealing is applied to find optimal PID parameters. The results of the proposed control method show fast and effective control performance for chiller equipment.

The purpose of this study was to explore the nine components of computational thinking (CT) practices and their operational definitions from the view of science education and to develop a CT practice framework that is going to be used as a planning and assessing tool for CT practice, as it is required for students to equip with in order to become creative problem solvers in 21st century. We employed this framework into the earlier developed STEAM programs to see how it was valid and reliable. We first reviewed theoretical articles about CT from computer science and technology education field. We then proposed 9 components of CT as defined in technology education but modified operational definitions in each component from the perspective of science education. This preliminary CTPF (computational thinking practice framework) from the viewpoint of science education consisting of 9 components including data collection, data analysis, data representation, decomposing, abstraction, algorithm and procedures, automation, simulation, and parallelization. We discussed each component with operational definition to check if those components were useful in and applicable for science programs. We employed this CTPF into two different topics of STEAM programs to see if those components were observable with operational definitions. The profile of CT components within the selected STEAM programs for this study showed one sequential spectrum covering from data collection to simulation as the grade level went higher. The first three data related CT components were dominating at elementary level, all components of CT except parallelization were found at middle school level, and finally more frequencies in every component of CT except parallelization were also found at high school level than middle school level. On the basis of the result of CT usage in STEAM programs, we included ‘generalization’ in CTPF of science education instead of ‘parallelization’ which was not found. The implication about teacher education was made based on the CTPF in terms of science education.

The purpose of the study was to define five science core competencies introduced in the 2015 revised science curriculum with each component and practical indicators into the frame. Science teachers on site could use it in teaching and developing science program to equip students with the competencies to creatively solve problems which is the aim of science education in the 21st century. To develop this frame, we contacted 10 experienced science educators and collected the data through a questionnaire. We coded all responses and categorized into the components and practical indicators of each competency which were all compared with those from well-known theories in order to validate. We then contacted other 35 science educators again to construct the validity to fill out the survey of Likert scale. The finalized science core competency included 19 components in total with practical indicators that can be observable and measurable in the classroom. This frame was used to see how it fits into a STEAM program. The finding was that two different topics of the STEAM program displayed the different description of science core competency usage, which could be used as the prescription of the competency as to whether or not it is more promoted in science class.