Investigation of the knowledge level of 8th grade students' about defining and unfolding of geometric shapes

The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge level of eighth grade students' about defining and unfolding process of geometric objects. The study was carried out using the survey methods. The sample of the study was consistent of 251 students studying in Uşak province in 2016-2017 education year. Data were collected with an instrument conssited of four part and develeped by the researcher. It was expected to determine the geometric objects among the given in the first part of the instrument and to know the name of the closed geometric object and numbers of edges, vertices and faces in the second part. In the third part of instrument, it was expected to distinguish the prism, pyramid, cylinder, cone and sphere from the geometric shapes given in the picture. In the fourth part, closed forms of geometric shapes were given and it was expected to draw two different unfolding views belonging these shapes. Descriptive and content analyses of data were performed. As a result of the study, it was determined that some of eighth grade students were not able to distinguish difference between two and three dimensional shapes, had difficulty in naming the geometrik shapes, and had misconceptions regarding number of edges, vertices and faces. It was also found that some of the students draw deficient or completely incorrect the unfolding of geometric shapes, and more than half of the students could not draw a second type of unfolding the geometric shapes except the prototype.