Summer science camp for middle school students: A Turkish

This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of summer science camp experience on middle students' content knowledge and attitude towards biology. For this purpose, a descriptive case study methodology was implemented. The descriptive case study is used to describe an intervention or phenomenon and the real-life context in which it occurred (Yin, 2003).

Data were collected from three sources to examine the effectiveness of summer science camp on middle students' content knowledge and identify their attitude towards biology. The data sources included 1) a pre and post questionnaire (included open-ended questions) which was used to determine students' interest in biology and whether or not there is a connection between biology and daily life in students' mind before and after the camp, 2) reflective journals to identify students' learning and perceptions of their performances while performing the biology day, and 3) observation which is used in instruction during the biology day (see Table 1).
Table 1. Timeline of Research Questions and Data

Research Questions

Pre-test questionnaire

Reflective Journal

Observations

Post- test questionnaire

How did biology day activities effect on the students' knowledge at the end of the biology day?

P

S

How did biology day activities effect on the middle students' interest in biology at the end of the biology day?

P

S

P

How did biology day activities effect on the middle students 'career decision regarding biology and perceptions of biology day activities?

P

S

P

Data Collection Time

One week before science camp

During the science camp

During the science camp

One week after science camp

P: Primary data source, S: Secondary data source used to answer the research questions

**Table 1. Timeline of Research Questions and Data**
Research Questions	Pre-test questionnaire	Reflective Journal	Observations	Post- test questionnaire
How did biology day activities effect on the students' knowledge at the end of the biology day?		P	S
How did biology day activities effect on the middle students' interest in biology at the end of the biology day?	P		S	P
How did biology day activities effect on the middle students 'career decision regarding biology and perceptions of biology day activities?	P		S	P
Data Collection Time	One week before science camp	During the science camp	During the science camp	One week after science camp
P: Primary data source, S: Secondary data source used to answer the research questions

Setting and participants

This study was implemented at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Faculty of Education, in Rize, Turkey. The participants of the camp consisted of 48 middle school students who completed 7th grade. However, only 10 students selected randomly from the population of 48 participants for this study. The students were selected from five different middle schools and taking into account their teachers' recommendations including students' interest against science. In accordance with the teachers' recommendations students who have a negative interest against science and at the same time are volunteered to attend the science camp. Table 2 represents the descriptive information related to participants. All names shown in the Table 2 are pseudo names. The names of the schools are shown as U-A, U-B, U-C, and P. Whilst U represents urban schools, P represents private school.

**Table 2. Ten students' descriptive information**
Name	Type of School	Sex	Age	Name	Type of School	Sex	Age
Nurcan	U-A	F	13	Selin	U-B	F	13
Elif	U-B	F	13	Cagri	U-B	M	13
Ismail	U-B	M	13	Ipek	U-C	F	13
Zeynep	U-A	F	13	Deniz	U-C	F	13
Salih	P	M	13	Mertcan	U-C	M	13
U: urban, P: private

The participants attended a camp referred to "Funny Discover of Mysterious World' which was funded by TUBITAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). The camp was carried out in two weeks. Each session has lasted one week. Whilst all activities were carried out at Faculty of Education for the four days of each week in science camp, the last day of each week was carried out at different places such as a museum, an aquarium, a bird conservatory and a butterfly garden where were located at Rize district.

Two factors were considered while selecting the content of the biology day activities as well as other science activities. Firstly, the concepts were identified from popular and attracted biology topics such as cloning, DNA, blood, and microorganism to increase students' motivation in participating these activities. Secondly, concepts of many activities were selected among the topics which students have not seen before in their formal learning environment except blood topic. Table 3 represents the content of biology day including learning activity types and concepts.

**Table3. Content of biology days**
Name of activities	Type of activity	Individual /Teamwork	Concepts
Strange DNAs	Experiment	Individual	DNA, nucleus, cell, chromosome
Let's make DNA and eat	Model	Individual	DNA bases, deoxyribose, Phosphate, DNA pairs
Let's clone a mouse	Simulation experiment	Teamwork	Nature of cloning
Let's make blood with candies	Model	Teamwork	Blood cells, functions of them, plasma, inorganic matters, food, hormone
What is my blood type?	Experiment	Teamwork	Blood types, identification of blood type
Bacteria and virus features	Model and Drama	Teamwork	Bacteria and virus features(growth, structure of cell, tolerance)
Bacteria cultivation	Experiment	Individual	Bacteria's living areas

A faculty member and five graduate teaching assistants were available to help the students during implementations. The faculty member and the others were expert in science education such as physics, chemistry, biology and environmental science fields. They performed as team coach for each team. Except them, three graduate students worked as a research team to collect data for this study. Whilst one of them observed the students during the biology day, the others implemented pre and post-test questionnaire and collected reflective journals which students have written for each day.

All participants from five different schools (U-A, U-B, U-C, U-D, P) consisting of private and urban schools district of Rize completed a pre questionnaire in a meeting held before the science camp to determine their interest in biology and their perceptions about biology and their daily life. The students' performance and behavior were observed then field notes and photos were collected to determine their performance. When the biology day was completed students were asked to write reflective journal to determine their perceptions about their learning during biology day. Reflective journal took time around 60 minutes. The students completed the post questionnaire in a meeting which was held after the science camp done. Both pre and post- test questionnaires lasted around 50 minutes.

Data Collection Tools

To answer our first research question— How did biology day activities effect on the middle students' knowledge at the end of the biology day? —It was asked students to write reflective journal about their learning and performances at the end of biology day (see table 3). In addition, it was observed their performance by using field notes and photos (see Appendix 1 and 2). Because students have not seen the concepts which are thought in biology day activities except the concept of blood in their formal learning, the pre-test examining students' preliminary knowledge was not applied.

To answer our first research question— How did biology day activities effect on the middle students' knowledge at the end of the biology day? —It was asked students to write reflective journal about their learning and performances at the end of biology day (see table 3). In addition, It was observed their performance by using field notes and photos (see Appendix 1 and 2). Because students have not seen the concepts which are thought in biology day activities except the concept of blood in their formal learning, the pre-test examining students' preliminary knowledge was not applied.

To answer our second and third research question— how did biology day activities effect on the middle students' interest in biology at the end of the biology day?, and how did biology day activities effect on the middle students' career decision regarding biology and perceptions of biology day activities?—It was used pre-post questionnaires included open ended questions (see Table 4). Pre and post questions were asked about students' interest in biology, their association between biology and daily life and also their career decision regarding biology. Also it was observed their behavior by using field notes and photos.

The validity of the instruments was established by one researcher in the field of biology education via using questionnaire queried whether the items in reflective journal and pre-post tests were relevant to the goal of the study. There was an explanation part which enables him to write his comments. Revisions were made according to his comments and suggestions.

Data Analysis

Qualitative content analysis method was used to provide descriptive statistics of the students' response about their knowledge and interest toward biology using pre-post questionnaire and reflective journal. Based on the analysis, students' understanding related to biology day activities in reflective journal were coded as correct, partial, misconception and no response (Abraham et al., 1992; Ayas, 1995; Ayas, 2001). The categories were given in a form of a frequency table which encompassed direct quotes as well. During the coding process, the researcher and an expert in biology education viewed the students' response independently several times. Next, the results were compared across the two coders' output. The agreement of two coders was found % 87.3. There was almost complete agreement, with just a few discrepancies related to students' content knowledge in some topics. These discrepancies were resolved after a meeting, resulting in complete coder agreement. After the frequencies were tabulated for each code, their responses were analyzed qualitatively to develop themes relating to perceived knowledge and interest toward biology. This involved constant iterations between the data and emerging themes to ensure soundness of fit (as per Schilling, 2006).

**Table 4. Open-ended Questions in Pre-Post Test and Reflective Journal**
Pretest	Reflective Journal	Posttest
Before Science Camp	After Biology Day	After Science Camp
I'm interested in Biology. Because;	What have you learned about the fallowing activities?	I'm interested in Biology. Because;
I'm not interested in Biology. Because;	Strange DNAs Let's make DNA and eat Let's clone a mouse Let's make blood with candies What is my blood type? Bacteria and virus features Bacteria cultivation	I'm not interested in Biology. Because;
I think that Biology is related to daily life. Because;		I think that Biology is related to daily life. Because;
I think that Biology is related to daily life. Because;		I think that Biology isn't related to daily life. Because;
I think that Biology isn't related to daily life. Because; You write quickly what Biology is related to		You write quickly what Biology is related to
		Dou you want to choose a job related to Biology? Why?