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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 10, Issue 2, Article 4 (Dec., 2009) |
The present study was carried out according to the pre-test–post-test–monitoring-test model with control and experimental groups. The present study continued throughout an entire school year, and the monitoring period includes three months during the summer holiday. The study group consisted of 101 students attending Nazim Akcan Primary School in the Altindag province, which is one of the provinces with a low socio-economic status in Ankara. In order to investigate the effects of the green class model applications on the 7th grade students’ environmental knowledge, participants were assigned into one control and two experimental groups (Experimental 1 and Experimental 2). The use of the two experimental groups parallel to each other makes the study more objective.
In the science and technology curriculum of 7th grade, there is a human and environment unit, and within the framework of this unit, 6 activities are suggested. In this unit, students are informed about the concepts of ecosystem, species, population and habitat. Their awareness of the importance of bio-diversity is raised; they are encouraged to understand environmental problems in the world and our country and to come up with cooperative solutions to save the endangered animals in our country and the world. The control and experimental groups are assumed to be equally affected from the objectives of the unit.
In the part of the study where the experimental groups were included and green classroom-based activities were used, theoretical information was given to the students from the beginning of the school year, and applied activities started during the spring due to weather conditions. In the applications, every student was provided with an opportunity to prepare a plant in the school garden, and then every student was assigned with the responsibility of growing the plant in the classroom. Among the plants, besides different types of flowers, students were encouraged to grow tomato, bean, pepper, strawberries, etc., to let them experience the sense of producing. During the growth periods of the plants, field trips were organized at places close to the school, and students watched CDs of other geographical regions of Turkey to gain another perspective of nature. Finally, the products obtained were displayed in June, in the final week of the school year at a nature exhibition. According to the performance they exhibited throughout the application, the majority of votes selected one group of students, and they were rewarded by being appointed as nature exhibition officers. In control groups, environmental education was traditionally given within the content and through methods stated in the curriculum.
In order to collect data, the researcher developed an environmental knowledge test consisting of 13 items (Appendix 1). This scale was administered to the students as pre-test at the beginning of the study and as a post-test at the end of the study. The scores that can be obtained from the scale fall between 0 and 13. The validity and reliability of the scale were tested, and the Kuder-Richardson 21 reliability coefficient of it was found to be .87.
The statistical analyses of the data obtained were carried out through the SPSS program package. While calculating the environmental knowledge scores, 1 was assigned to the correct answer and 0 to the false answer, and in this way, the environmental knowledge score for each student was calculated.
A two-way ANOVA for mixed measures was used to determine whether there were significant differences among the pre-test, post-test and monitoring scores of the control and experimental groups. For multiple-comparisons, LSD was preferred. The Levene test was used to test the variance homogeneity of the groups to be compared, and Box’s M statistics was employed to test the equality of covariance matrices.
