Use Of video clips to teach 'management Of natural disasters and associated risks' gor grade 7

Abstract

Disasters are closely interlinked with the human society and environment. Natural disasters around the world as well as in Sri Lanka have increased over the recent past. Although we cannot control natural disasters completely, if we are knowledgeable about them , we can minimize their damage to the human and property. Science is one of the most suitable subjects which can be used to educate the students about disaste r management. Teaching- learning method is very important to students achieve the knowledge and skills. My study focused to enhance Grade 7 students' achie vement level on unit 8, 'N atural disast ers' and managing the risks associated with them ' with the use of video clips as teaching - learning tool.

The three major steps in the study include: identifying the current situation of teaching - learning proce ss, preparation of lesson plans and implem entation of lessons with the use of video clips and assessing student's achievement. In the first step, the existing situation of teaching learning process was identifi ed using a questionnaire administrated to 40 science teachers working at junior secondary level in Matale district. In the second step, six lesson plans were designed to accomp lish the two competency levels. The teaching methods given in the teach er instruction manual was used for the control group and video clips were used for the experimental group. In the third step, student's achievement was measured by comparing marks from assessments and post tests.

It was revealed that lecture method (33%) and discussions (27%) were the most comm on methods used by teachers to teach unit 8 and the majority of teachers (33.84%) used black board or white board as teaching aid. The mean marks of the pre test indicated that control and experimental groups were at the same knowledge level. Mark s of assessments and post test revealed that usage of video clips for teaching enhanced the achie vement level of the students. Teachers should be encouraged to implement the lesson s using video clips to give real life experiences to students, with the use of well planned lesson plan s with different kinds of reinforcement activities.