Determination of the perceptions of 8th class middle school students on the matter cycles by using metaphors

The main purpose of this study is to bring out the perceptions of 8th class students about the substance Notion of Matter Cycles through the agency of metaphors. This research,in which phenomenology was used,was carried out with 156 students (81 female, 74 male, 1 gender unspecified) in 8th class in a public school where studing students in Aksaray province center in the academic year 2018-2019. The data of the study were evaluated from 112 participants (59 female, 53 male) with a total of 156 participants. The data collected by completing ''Matter Cycles..,like this,.., because..'' of each participant were analyzed by using content analysis method. According to the findings of the study, 112 participants produced 75 valid metaphors related to the substance Notion of 'Matter Cycles. Then these metaphors were examined in terms of common characteristics and 8 different categories were created.These catecories are balance,order,change,transformationcontinuity,harm,importance/lifestyle and regeneration. According to the results of the research, in general terms, students understand the concept of Matter Cycles, 8 categories and metaphors related to the subject. The students have made connections between the subjects and have often produced metaphors from the field of science and importance of life. The most frequent metaphor has been metaphor of life/living. The students found the Notion of Matter similar in terms of the continuity of life, importance of life, repetition of things of life, the renewal of life during the life and a certain balance and order. Keywords: Matter cycles, Metaphors, Phenomenology, Middle school.