Chernobyl Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

https://27hskiki.hkd.hr/abstracts-temp/27HSKIKI_Ruic-Funcic.pdf

SUMMARY:
From March to the end of May 2020, third-grade students at the Franjo Petrić High School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, inspired by the Chernobyl series, researched radioactivity related to electricity generation, medicine, materials and agriculture. As classes were conducted remotely, through the Teams platform, the teacher acted as a moderator, and students, divided into groups, asked questions and hypotheses, set a research plan, found data sources, collected, and analysed materials, wrote a report [1], reviewed works of other groups and finally made a self-assessment of research work and their contribution to group work [2].
The source of data was mostly websites, but also encyclopaedia’s, medical manuals, conversations with the citizens of Pripyat in Ukraine, and their parents and the generation of their parents who experienced the Chernobyl disaster. One of the activities in the research was a survey research [3] of the experience of people who experienced the consequences of the Chernobyl accident in Croatia for students to get acquainted with the past firsthand and with the survey as a scientific research method. All students participated in creating a database of questions for the survey, after which two students selected relevant questions and compiled a survey questionnaire. Two students, co-authors of this article, analysed the results and wrote a report. The survey was conducted during April 2020.
During the research, the question of comparing the Chernobyl disaster with the COVID-19 pandemic was also raised. One of the conclusions of the paper is that the impact of the Chernobyl disaster on people can be compared to similar disasters of global or continental scale. Therefore, in the conclusion of the paper, more research is proposed: more extensive research on the impact of the Chernobyl disaster on people with selected issues, improved sample of respondents and nursing research on the same topic in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic that has been present since 2020, highlighting differences in the availability of information and protection measures for citizens in relation to the situation threatening public health and causing fear and panic among citizens.
The benefits of online research teaching conducted in groups are numerous. The most important is student’s independence in work, learning and writing. Independence in distance teaching is much more pronounced than in live teaching because teacher-student contacts are reduced to a minimum [4]. Independence in work increases the responsibility for learning outcomes, and thus stress in students. The stressful effects of increased responsibility were reduced by group work due to the division of labour, but also the mutual cooperation of students in the analysis of materials and the preparation of the final report of the work. Nevertheless, each student was able to develop the ability to spot relevant, critical thinking, identify research questions that can be tested, as opposed to information questions, conduct research, measure, and collect data, use appropriate methods to describe, summarize and analyse data, consider alternative explanations, and communicate methods, results and predictions. The advantage of group work in distance learning for the teacher is the saving of time when exchanging information and evaluating students.
There are also disadvantages to conducting online research and group classes. In distance learning, as is already known, there is a lack of a living word and discussion. The students lacked the exchange of information live, face to face - between themselves within the group. They communicated using various communication services, video conferencing platforms or Teams platforms. Digital communication, reduced only to verbal expression and the ability to get involved whenever they can or want to, has slowed down, and blurred mutual agreement and research work. Also, the lack of live conversations between students and teachers slowed down the research process and reduced the quality of instructions or explanations. Students point out as a problem literature that was most often too professional or was written in English, which they did not always know how to translate well. More pronounced than in live teaching, there was also the usual problem of teaching in groups of students - the inability to accurately assess the individual contribution of students to research and group collaboration.

KEY WORDS: distance learning, research teaching, group work, Chernobyl, survey, chemistry, radioactivity

LITERATURA:
[1] Sikirica, M. (2003.): Metodika nastave kemije, priručnik za nastavnike kemije,
Školska knjiga, Zagreb.
[2] Bennett, N. (2001.): Učenje kroz grupni rad, Uspješno učenje i poučavanje,
psihologijski pristupi, ur. Desforges C., Educa, Zagreb.
[3] Halmi, A. (2005.): Strategije kvalitativnih istraživanja u primijenjenim društvenim
znanostima, Naklada Slap, Jastrebarsko
[4] Bates, A.W. (2019): Teaching in a Digital Age, Guidelines for designing teaching and
learning, https://teachonline.ca/teaching-in-a-digital-age/teaching-in-a-digitalage-second-edition