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

The purpose of the present study was to search the effectiveness of a science camp program which aimed at introducing science by using inquiry and explicit NOS activities on children’s understanding of science. Comparison of data at the beginning and end of the science camp indicates improvements in the children’s conception of science. They came to the science camp with a superficial understanding of the process of science, thinking science as technology or invention of technology and an area which works for benefits of the society. On the other hand, they became more aware of the process of science.

As a restricted conception of science, four children knew science only as scientific knowledge at the beginning of the science camp whereas only one child left with this conception of science at the end of the science camp. It was a positive result, because remaining three children recognized the process of science behind the scientific knowledge.

There were five children who defined only the process of science both at the beginning and end of the science camp. On the other hand, fifteen children indicated both the process and product of science at the beginning of the science camp and it increased to eighteen at the end of the science camp. In addition to this quantitative increase, the real improvement was qualitative. All of these children defined science superficially by sequencing scientific processes at the beginning of the science camp. Ten of them became able to define science in more detail by connecting scientific processes to each other and by stating their functions in science. The most obvious difference between superficial and detailed definitions of science was the interconnectedness of scientific processes. In superficial definitions, scientific processes are just sequenced without indicating their relationship or functions whereas the same processes were used by implying their functions in the scientific process in detailed definitions. This difference would also indicate the progress in children’s conception of science. When they first introduced scientific processes they basically related them to science, but they did not understand their functions in the scientific process. As they progressed, they better recognized their functions and conceptualize scientific process and connect them to each other and form a concise conception of the scientific process.

Other qualitative differences were also evident in the children’s definitions of science such as the addition of new scientific processes in both superficial and detailed definitions. Although none of the children used collecting data in defining science at the beginning of the science camp, most of them stated this process at the end of the science camp. They learned data and realized its importance in science during the science camp. In most of the activities, they collected data at the nature. Sometimes data were generated from simulation games. In one activity, earthquake data were given as a list. In all of these activities, they interpreted data and constructed scientific knowledge. So, they experienced these processes many times during the science camp and understood the importance of data in the scientific research. Thus, most of the children started to realize that science is empirical. Similarly, other processes such as measurement, prediction, and interpretation emerged only at the end of the science camp indicating that they learned them throughout the science camp.

If the results of this study were compared with that of related studies, there was an interesting difference. The common conception of science was considering science as a school subject. This conception of science was very common in Stein and McRobie’s (1997) study conducted in Australia. Sixty percent of seventh grade children participated to their study defined science as what is done or learnt at school. Similarly, in BouJaoude and Abd-El Khalick (1995) study, 85% of the students in a public school and 65% of students in two private schools, and 40% of students in another public school defined science as school subject. In addition, most of the research conducted in the U.S. similarly reported that students perceive science as a school subject (Charron, 1991; Reif and Larkin, 1991; Song and Black, 1991; Urevbu, 1991). On the contrary, this conception of science was very low (4) at the beginning of the science camp and disappeared at the end of the science camp. The reason for the difference between this study and other studies would be the name of the course in Turkey. There are two words corresponding to science in Turkish which are ‘fen’ and ‘bilim’. ‘Fen’ corresponds to the positive sciences whereas ‘bilim’ corresponds to science in general. Integrated science is taught from first to eight grade in Turkey and ‘fen’ is used in the name of the course. But, in daily life and in the questionnaire used in this study general term for science (bilim) was used. Thus, fewer children related science to the course studied in the school at the beginning of the science camp. Since their conceptions of science shifted toward process of science at the science camp, there was no child left defining science as a school subject at the end of the science camp.

A similar study on a science camp conducted by Liu and Lederman (2002) found very little change in the students’ understanding of NOS from pre- to post-test. Their science camp was conducted with a group of gifted seventh-grade students from Taiwan. They explained the reason for little change from pre- to post-test as the students being already well at the pre-test. The participants in the science camp presented in this study were regular 6th and 7th grade students and we found positive changes in children’s views of science. The reason for this was that there was a room for change in the children’s conceptions of science, since they started to the science camp with a popular understanding of science.

The ten-day long science camp provided the participants with a unique out-of-school experience. Although duration of the science camp was short, the science camp program mainly consisting of explicit NOS activities and guided inquiry, was effective in developing the children’s conception of science. There is increasing evidence in the literature that explicit approaches are more effective than implicit approaches in improving student’s views of NOS (Abd-El-Khalick&Lederman, 2000; Khishfe&Abd-El-Khalick, 2002, Khishfe, 2008). There are also research studies which aimed at introducing NOS aspects with inquiry-oriented instructional approach reporting positive change in children’s views of NOS (Khishfe&Abd-El-Khalick, 2002; Khishfe & Lederman, 2006; Khishfe, 2008). This study showed that the combination of both explicit NOS and guided-inquiry was also effective in developing children’s conception of science.