Summer science camp for middle school students: A Turkish experience

1: A photo of Strange DNAs Activity

2: Some field notes taken during biology day activities (translated to English)

During the pretest, 3 students indicated that they were interested in biology, but this number increased to 9 for the post-test (see Table 6). The research have pointed out that similar results were found in some studies which conducted with quantitative approach (Gibson and Chase, 2002; Knox et al., 2003; Markowitz, 2004; Orstein, 2006; Prokop et al., 2007).. On the other hand, this study also investigated why the students changed their ideas, which this is a different investigation from the other studies done in this field. Moreover, in the pretest, students who were not interested in biology argued that it was hard, boring and they did not like it.

Activity of Strange DNAs
They were surprised the beginning of the activity of strange DNAs when team coaches said today 'we will see our DNA clusters' most of them responded: what is DNA? Some of them asked: How can we see DNA without using a microscope? It is impossible.
Students didn't reveal their preconceptions about DNA because most of them didn't know anything about DNA. Little of them said I have heard DNA. But I don't have any idea about it. They had fun in this activity. Responses of some students at lunch break:
I was the most surprised during strange DNAs activity. I didn't think that we could have done this type of important activity so easily with our own equipments. I was amazed to see how successful we were in carrying out such an experiment.
I was surprised much during the activities of strange DNA. In the activity of strange DNA, I was surprised to learn so long DNA is inside small chromosomes in nucleus.
I had the most fun during strange DNAs activity. I accomplished the results myself as applying step by step our team coach point out.

Activity of Let's make DNA and eat
This activity was fun for most students. While they were making DNA they seemed very excited and careful. They enjoyed to eat it at the end of activity. As they were eating it one of them said "It was hard for me to stick marshmallows. However it was great first to learn Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, deoxyribase, phosphate" One of them said: I had fun much during the activity of lets make DNA. Because first time I learned knowledge about DNA and I like much making DNA with marshmallows.

Activity of let's clone a mouse
Most students were surprised during let's clone a mouse. How to can be the mouse's cell extracted and transferred to another mouse? They wondered especially about how mousses could have the same features such as sex after being cloned. Some students said: 'The stages of cloning were very difficult and confusing'.
Most of them surprised much during the activity of lets clone mouse. Some of them said: I feel like cloning a real mouse. They wondered how to be cloned Dolly. Gulsah lecturer explained as using computer software contains animations about cloning process. Most of them firstly didn't understood very well. Then lecture repeated. They asked a lot of questions in this step to understand process. Some of them said: it is so confusing. Some of them said: I supposed that cloning was so easy however it was not that. They looked very impatient to start simulation experiment. They cut and pasted mousses' egg cell and somatic cell. Each team prepared poster explaining mouse's cloning process and then presented their team coaches.

Activity of Lets make blood with candies
It was so easy for students to do this activity they had fun. Some of them said candies are similar cells of blood such as erythrocytes and white blood cells. Some of them complained this activity is so easy for us. While they were making blood model team coaches asked teams guide questions about their roles in body. Most of them responded these questions. However they didn't reveal preconception about plasma and thromboses and its roles.

Activity of what is my blood type?
Today It seemed that the teams liked and had fun during this activity. During this experiment, they identified their blood types. While most students enjoyed this activity others thought that it was boring. No one in two groups was volunteer to give blood. They said 'we think that It is painful'. The students in another team gave their blood for these groups to use. They tested these bloods. At lunch we asked them how is biology day going? They said All activities were hands on activities we had never done and heard before.
Some students said It is great to identify our team mates' blood types, learn about how to identify blood types and have fun while doing these. Some of them said it is surprising. I am learning my blood group as using various stuffs, not only I learned my blood group but also how to identify blood group.

Activity of what is my blood type?
In this activity male student was bored while making sock puppet. It was so hard for them to buttonhole for puppet. Team member shared their roles while making puppet. Most male students weren't interested in sewing button. And all teams performed drama as given poetry consist of bacteria' and virus' features. Some teams performed.

Bacteria Cultivation
The students were curious to cultivate bacteria and about petri which bacteria grow. It was interesting to see petri. All students haven't seen before it. They were surprised bacteria cultivation activity. They learned new knowledge about bacteria. For example one said that I learned that we could cultivate bacteria and they could multiply so much that we could see them. Because I didn't know anything about bacteria cultivation and realized it was enjoyable to cultivate bacteria. On the other hand one of them said I was bored during the activity of bacteria cultivation. Because I worried about jug which we cultivated since it might be harmful.