The mental models of secondary school 7th class students about global warming

It is known that students who achive to relate and give meanings to concepts and imagine have more qualified image and present more succesful conceptual understanding compared to traditional teaching. The purpose of this study is toinvestigate seventh school students mental models about global warming. The research was conducted in the region of Kıraç of Esenyurt town in İstanbul. 185 students of A secondary school was participated to this study in 2012-2013 school year. The collect data, "global warming interview form (GWIF) was administrated. The students were asked a number of openended of guestions about global warming. İn this research, case study method was used, which is one of the qualitative method patterns. For the analysis of qualitative data, frequency analysis was used, which is a content analysis method. In the end of research, it is found that most of students relate their peception of "global warming" with the concepts of drought, glacial melting. Correspondingly it is indicated that students have unclear and complex mental model. İt is also found that students knowledge level global warming is not sufficient and their mental models are in low level. The students thought that global warming may cause environmental disasters and threatens life. In addition, they have many misconceptions about global warming. Key Words: Global Warming, Modelling, Model, Mental Model.