Examination of middle school students' metaphorical perceptions towards "Earthquake" and "Flood" conteps

The aim of this study is to determine the metaphorical perceptions of middle school students towards the concepts of "Earthquake" and "Flood". The "case" design, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The sample of the study consists of 42 students attending Yozgat Saraykent Sarayözü Secondary School in the spring semester of the 2022-2023 Academic Year. 37 of the students participated in the study voluntarily. In the study, a form created by the researcher to determine the metaphorical perceptions of the students regarding the concepts of flood and earthquake was used as the data collection tool. The relevant form included 16 questions and relevant explanations in order to determine the metaphorical perceptions of the students regarding the concepts of earthquake and flood. After the data collection process was completed, 276 metaphors were obtained from the 37 metaphor creation papers collected, and these metaphors were divided into two as metaphors for the concepts of flood and earthquake. Flood metaphors were divided into 9 different categories, and earthquake metaphors were divided into 8 different categories. After the metaphors were divided into categories and examined, they were written into the Microsoft Word program and then edited and examined. The collected data was analyzed using the content analysis technique. It was determined that 37 students produced 152 different metaphors for the concept of earthquake and the metaphors were divided into 8 categories. These categories are: Shaking, Death, Cutting and piercing, Breaking, Destruction, Natural disaster, Transportation vehicle and Opposite. Again, 124 different metaphors were produced for the concept of flood on the form papers and the metaphors were collected in 9 different categories. These categories are: Water containing, Death, Natural source, Natural disaster, Time, Course material, Game, Vehicles and Different. It was seen that they were divided into 9 different categories.