How did a science camp affect children’s conceptions of science?

This research was implemented in accordance with Three in One: Nature, Science and Children Summer Science Camp Project which was supported by Science and Society Department of Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (STRCT). The Science Camp Project consisted of two terms. The data in this research were obtained by the children who participated in the second term of the project between July, 4-13, 2008.

Participants

The participants were 24 children who were at 6th and 7th grades. There were 11 girls and 13 boys. Thirteen of them were at 6th grade and eleven of them were at 7th grade. Children were selected from ten different elementary schools in the city. Science teachers’ suggestions were considered in selecting the children. The only criterion was the children’s interest in science. Although the children were selected, participation was their voluntary choice.

Design of Research

In this study, the effectiveness of science camp program on children’s views of science was investigated by qualitative research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000). The science camp program was developed by the researchers and included explicit NOS activities in addition to children’s guided inquiry at the nature. VNOS D questionnaire and semi-structured interviews on the questionnaire was applied at the beginning and at the end of the science camp. Interpretative analysis (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993) was applied in the analysis of the data. Pre- and post-test results were compared and interpreted to find out the changes in children’s views about science.

Instruction

The science camp was conducted by a team which included science, mathematics, and art educators. The science camp was carried out at a holiday village which was located near a forest and lasted ten days. The purpose of the science camp was to introduce science to the children in general and to teach some NOS aspects. Due to the research showing the effectiveness of explicit NOS instruction (Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2000), explicit and guided-inquiry approach (Khishfe, 2008) and several explicit NOS activities (Lederman & Abd-El-Khalick, 1998) were used in order to introduce science to the children. Research studies have consistently shown that explicit approach is more effective than implicit approach in teaching NOS (Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2000; Khishfe & Abd-El-Khalick, 2002; Khishfe, 2008). There were also lots of different and enjoyable activities in the science camp program. The activities could be grouped in four categories.

1. Explicit NOS activities: The explicit NOS activities were Black Box, Real Fossils, Real Science, Young Woman or Old Woman, The Hole Picture, Tricky Tracks and The Cube (Lederman and Abd-El-Khalick, 1998). These were most commonly used activities in related literature regarding NOS instruction. In addition to these activities, three activities, Modeling the Bottom of a Puddle, Modeling Earthquake Data and Global Warming, were developed by the researchers to introduce scientific modeling and scientific research process. During these activities explicit-reflective approach was used in accordance with general approach of science camp. This reflective approach was used in some other studies to help children discuss and deepen their understanding of NOS (Akerson, Abd-El-Khalick, & Lederman, 2000) by articulating their understanding in interactive period. For this reason, during and especially at the end of each activity, target aspects of NOS were discussed explicitly and children were provided opportunities to express their understanding about activities during debrief discussion period conducted just after the activities. Furthermore, these activities facilitated children’s motivation during the activities because of inherently mysterious nature of the activities.

2. Guided inquiry: Second kind of activities was related to the scientific process. Firstly, background training for conducting inquiry was done in two research workshops. Then, they formed their research groups and planned a two-day long inquiry at the nature. They conducted their inquiry, collected data and interpreted it. In the end, they summarized their inquiry on a poster and presented them to their parents. The purpose of this kind of activities was to teach scientific inquiry to the children in its natural setting by replicating the scientific process. In these activities, children could understand how science is done and how scientists work. The children worked in groups of three during these activities. Each group was guided by a supervisor who was expert in science education. Six supervisors who were mostly science educators at the university guided the children’s inquiry process. With the help of their supervisors, the children could make sense of scientific inquiry process which they engaged in. The supervisors asked group members to find a research question which would be applied at the nature in two days. Then the supervisors guided them in developing their research. Then, they applied their inquiry at the nature. The supervisors worked with their groups in close contact and facilitated their understanding of science by probing their thinking what they were doing and how it was done by scientists. Since they worked in a group, they also had opportunity to discuss their process with their group members. Furthermore, since all the activities conducted in a specific order during the science camp, the children had also opportunity to articulate and transfer their understanding acquired in one activity into another activity. Reflective approach was also used in this kind of activities as it was in the explicit NOS activities.

3. Activities by which science is related to other areas: This kind of activities aimed at introducing some subjects at the nature such as mathematics and art, and environmental awareness. Funny Math, Observation Stations in Nature, Eco-systems in Our Camp, Environmental Pollution, Space Observation, and Habitat Game were conducted to attain this purpose.

4. Other activities: These activities aimed at improving children’s abilities in social communication and art practice. In order to implement this purpose, Science and Art Workshop and Creativity Workshop were conducted and children went to a science center in the capital city of Turkey.

Collecting Data

Questionnaire. Views of the Nature of Science Version D (VNOS-D) questionnaire (Lederman & Khishfe, 2002) was applied as pre- and post-test in order to determine the effectiveness of the science camp in introducing science in general and teaching some NOS aspects. The questionnaire includes seven open-ended questions. Some of the questions are generic and some of them are content-embedded (Khishfe, 2008). All the items included in questionnaire aimed at questioning target aspects of NOS such as empirical, tentative, subjective NOS, role of imagination and creativity, and difference between observation and inference. Although the children’s responses to all the questionnaire items reflected their understanding about science in a specific way related to target aspects of NOS, first two items of the questionnaire provided opportunity for researchers to identify children’s understanding of science in a more general way. These two questions facilitated understanding what science corresponds to in children’s mind and how they make sense of science. Thus, these two items of the VNOS-D questionnaire which were about science and its distinguishing features from other areas were analyzed to investigate children’s ideas about science in the present study. Although all the responses of children were examined, present study included especially the data which were obtained from first two questions in VNOS-D. Other questions were specifically related to the tentative nature of scientific knowledge, the use of imagination and creativity in science, and scientific model.

Interviews. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted just after pre- and post-test applications to understand children’s views about science better. The interviews were conducted by the researchers, and children were provided their questionnaires and asked to explain their answers. Each interview lasted 30 minutes on average. All interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim for analysis.

Analysis of Data

Large amounts of qualitative data were obtained from both pre and post questionnaires and interviews. In order to facilitate analysis of data, a qualitative data analysis package program was used. The data were analyzed by interpretive analysis (LeCompte ve Preissle, 1993). The data were coded by first researcher and checked by second researcher. The different ideas about the codes were negotiated and a consensus was reached. Then, two researchers classified the codes into categories inductively until they satisfied that the data were organized for interpretation. After that, they interpret children’s conception of science at the beginning and end of the science camp, and compared these interpretations to find out the change in children’s conception of science.