Science Laboratory Activities Research Articles

The Impact of a Mobile Phone and Mobile Application-Supported Science Laboratory on the Digital Literacy of Preservice Teachers and Their Disposition Toward Using Technology in Class

AbstractScience education at different levels can be supported by various mobile applications that can be downloaded for free onto mobile phones, tablets, and other devices. Such applications can also be used in laboratory work, but it must be said that their use in science laboratories is a relatively new approach. This study is aimed at determining the impact of mobile phone and mobile application-supported laboratory work on the digital literacy of preservice science teachers and on their disposition toward using technology in class. The study was carried out with 17 participants at the second-year level of a Science Teacher Education Program in Turkey. It was a single-group pretest-posttest study, representing a type of weak experimental research design. Data for the study were collected with the Digital Literacy Scale developed by Hamutoğlu et al. (Ege Journal of Education 18(1):408–429, 2017) and the Disposition toward Using Technology in the Classroom Scale developed by Gunuc and Kuzu (Journal of Theory and Practice in Education 10(4):863–884, 2014). The data collection tools were implemented prior to and following a 6-week teaching period, and the quantitative data compiled from the participants were analyzed with the SPSS 21.0 program. The parametric t-test of related samples was used in the pretest/posttest comparison of the data sets. The results of the study demonstrated that science laboratory activities supported by mobile phones and mobile applications provided preservice teachers with increased digital literacy and enhanced their disposition toward using technology in the classroom. It is recommended that preservice teachers make extensive use of experiments supported by the mobile applications in this study.

Effect of Robotics Technology in Science Education onScientific Creativity and Attitude Development

In this research, the effect of experimental applications by using robotics technology in Science and Technology course the “Force and Motion” unit on the level of scientific creativity and scientific attitude of students was investigated. This research was designed according to the quasi-experimental method pre-test post-test design with a control group. In the research that was carried out with the 7th grade students (N=40) studying at a secondary school in Kayseri Province, Turkey. “Scientific Creativity Test” and “Scientific Attitude Scale” were used as data collection tools. At the end of implementation which lasted eight weeks, the quantitative data obtained were evaluated at 0.05 meaningfulness level through SPSS package software. “Mann Whitney U-Test” and “Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test” were applied as analysis techniques. As a result of the research, while a meaningful difference was found between scientific creativity and scientific attitude pre-test post-test points of the students in the experimental group which robotics technology was used, no difference was found in the control group. Thus, it was found out that robotics developed scientific creativity and scientific attitude level of the students who joined the research by affecting it positively. Therefore, it is recommended that robotics-assisted science laboratory activities should also be planned and implemented in different classes, units or subjects to provide a science teaching with a better quality that supports and improves scientific creativity and scientific attitudes of students.

Science Laboratory Activities: A Profile of the Implementation and Constraints of Junior High School Natural Science Teachers

This study aims to describe the implementation and various obstacles of laboratory activities in junior high schools. The study employed the descriptive quantitative method. The subjects of the study were science teachers in 41 junior high schools representing 4 areas of the Natural Sciences Teachers' Consultative Assembly (MGMP IPA) in Jawa Barat Province. The instrument employed was a questionnaire. The technical analysis of the data was conducted by calculating the average percentage of each answer choice of each statement. This research reveals that 1) the students’ motivation for conducting laboratory activities is high; 2) the implementation of laboratory activities is conducted separately by employing theoretical classroom learning; 3) the source of guidance for laboratory activities is a model of cookbook laboratory; and 4) some obstacles in laboratory activities include insufficient laboratory spaces, less standardized and insufficient number of most equipment, the availability of manuals for laboratory activities, insufficient instructions to use laboratory equipment, and teachers’ difficulties in designing, implementing, and evaluating laboratory activities. It is concluded that in general teachers and students are very enthusiastic about conducting laboratory activities in science learning, but they still have several constraints, especially in the available infrastructures.

Guided Quick Labs and Academically Challenged Learners’ Predicting, Observing, and Inferring Skills

This quasi-experimental study aimed at determining the effects of guided quick labs and traditional science laboratory activities on academically-challenged Grade 10 learners' predicting, observing, and inferring skills. The subjects in this study were the 60 academically-challenged Grade 10 learners of Antique National School in San Jose, Antique. The subjects were divided into two groups, the traditional and the quick labs. Pretest and post-test ware used to measure the predicting, observing, and inferring skills of the learners before and after exposure to both laboratory activities. The results showed that the predicting, observing, and inferring skills of the academically-challenged Grade 10 learners in both groups were comparable at the start of the six (6)-week intervention. After the intervention, the results revealed that both groups were still comparable. The findings proved that both types of laboratory activities have a similar effect in predicting and observing skills and is best improving the learners' inferring skills.

Effects of virtual reality enriched science laboratory activities on pre-service science teachers’ science process skills

Innovative instructional technologies, especially virtual reality devices, are becoming more prominent and feasible in science education. Concerning science laboratories, activities enriched with virtual reality technology have the potential to make unobservable phenomena accessible in any school. This virtual reality technology has the potential to lead in a new milestone in terms of acquisition of the science process skills, not only in secondary school students but also in the training of pre-service science teachers. This mixed-method study aimed to investigate the effect of virtual reality enriched laboratory activities’ effects on the science process skills of pre-service science teachers in Turkey. The pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental intervention was conducted with 54 3rd-grade pre-service science teachers enrolled in a state university in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. There were 24 participants in the experimental and 30 participants in the control group. The science process skills test was administered to both groups before and after the six-week-long intervention. Also, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants from the experimental group after the intervention process. Even though the groups did not differ at the end of the intervention, the increase of the scores in the experimental group was found to be statistically significant, concerning the overall test scores and the sub-dimension of Experimenting. Furthermore, qualitative findings signify a prominent emphasis on Observing. The potential causations and derived implications are discussed.

Evaluating the Use of Project Based Teaching on the Science Laboratory Course According to the Views of the Classroom Teacher Candidates

This study is to aim that evaluating of the project based instruction (PBI) activities effects on science laboratory course depending on the pre-service classroom teachers’ opinions. This study was designed with the case study and 36 pre-service classroom teachers participated. The data was collected via “interview form towards science laboratory applications” Interviews were carried out two times before and after instruction. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. Findings indicated that depending on pre-service classroom teachers’ opinions PBI teaching method enriched science laboratory activities and increased their science laboratory attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs. Throughout the process, pre-service teachers learned how the project based instruction process conducted and their teaching strategies. Depending on these results, science-teaching process apart from science laboratory activities can be enriched by PBI method.

Plan your own science experiment: Elaborating students’ creativity and problems in science laboratory activity

In general, science class is usually accompanied by science laboratory activity. Conventionally, when students do their science laboratory activities, they follow science laboratory manuals where fixed steps of the activities are already provided. Alternatively, open-ended science laboratory manual can be implemented. In this study, the concept of Plan-your-own-science-experiment was applied. For this descriptive research, 65 primary-school teacher candidate students, which were divided into 8 groups, were asked to do an experiment about the effect of carbonated beverages on balloons with a simple open-ended laboratory manual. The guidelines only suggested the materials and apparatus required for the experiment, as well as a simple step to do the activity. The students were expected to broaden the possibility of the experiment with the same materials and apparatus recommended on the lab manual, and submit reports about their self-planned experiments. Afterwards, the students reports were elaborated for exploring students creativity emerged in the experiments they planned by themselves, and also scrutinizing the students problems in creating their own laboratory activity steps scientifically with an unstructured laboratory manual. The students’ creativity and problems found in their reports were discussed in this study. The results were supposed to provide science-teachers insights about positive sides and difficulties in applying Plan-your-own-science-experiment in science laboratory activity.

Using Inquiry-Based Laboratory Instruction to Improve Critical Thinking and Scientific Process Skills among Preservice Elementary Teachers

Purpose: Although critical thinking skills (CTS) and scientific process skills (SPS) are the beneficial skills needed in the 21 st century learning, the fact is that the acquisition of these two skills is still low. Research w ith a focus on improving these skills by using inquiry-based approach is also limited. Therefore, this quasi-experimental study aimed to enhance preservice elementary teachers’ CTS and SPS by using Inquiry-Based Laboratory Instruction (IBLI). Method: A pretest-posttest control group design was executed. A total of 43 students who attended Teaching Science in Elementary School-II Laboratory Course at the Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo were divided into two groups using cluster random sampling. The experimental group ( n =21) was taught by using IBLI, while the control group ( n =22) was taught by using traditional laboratory method. The Oliver-Hoyo Rubric for Critical Thinking (OHRCT) and the Observation Checklist for SPS (OCSPS) were administered. The data were then analyzed by using normalized gain score and Mann-Whitney U test at significance level .05. Findings: There was a significant difference in terms of CTS and SPS between control and experimental groups in favor of experimental group students. It was found out that gained CTS score of control and experimental group students was .58 and .80, while gained SPS score was .60 and .81, respectively. It can be highlighted that IBLI had a significant effect on preservice elementary teachers’ performance compared to the conventional group. Implications for Research and Practice: The findings suggest that IBLI is considered as the effective method to foster CTS and SPS of preservice elementary teachers. According to results, it is recommended that preservice teachers need to be given opportunities to develop hands-on and minds-on experiences in the science laboratory activities. The lecturers should utilize IBLI to develop students’ various lifelong learning skills.

O LABORATÓRIO DE CIÊNCIAS DO COLÉGIO PEDRO II: UMA AVALIAÇÃO NA PERSPECTIVA DE SEUS DOCENTES

O estudo teve por objetivo avaliar em que medida as atividades do Laboratório de Ciências, dos Anos Iniciais do Colégio Pedro II (CPII), contribuem para aperfeiçoar as práticas pedagógicas realizadas na sala de aula regular. Para tanto, foi desenvolvida uma abordagem teórica, que situou o ensino de Ciências como ‘alfabetização científica’, explicitada a história da criação e desenvolvimento do Laboratório de Ciências nesta instituição, e utilizada uma abordagem avaliativa, centrada nos participantes. Do ponto de vista metodológico, o estudo se desdobrou em duas partes: a primeira, envolveu um grupo focal com docentes do CPII, consideradas experientes no ensino de Ciências, cujas falas depuradas deram origem às categorias avaliativas que seriam posteriormente avaliadas. A segunda, resultou na aplicação de um questionário a um grupo de 12 docentes, todas mais novas no CPII, para avaliar em que medida as categorias avaliativas estavam presentes nas práticas dessas docentes. A análise dos dados, baseada no confronto das falas avaliativas de ambos os grupos, revelou que as docentes mais novas na instituição endossam e ampliam a importância das atividades do Laboratório de Ciências para as práticas pedagógicas das salas de aula convencionais. O grupo mais novo das docentes ampliou significativamente as categorias avaliativas iniciais, oferecendo subsídios à construção de um quadro integrador, o qual poderá servir de base para se determinar a presença dos indicadores ali expressos.

Designing laboratory activities in elementary school oriented to scientific approach for teachers SD-Kreatif Bojonegoro

Important science lessons are introduced to elementary school students through inquiry. This training is important to do because one key determinant of succesful laboratory activities is teachers. This course aims to enable teachers to design an inquiry-based Laboratory Activity and be able to apply it in the classroom. The training was conducted at SD-Kreatif Bojonegoro by Modeling, Design Laboratory activities and Implementing. The results of Laboratory Activities designed to trace the seven aspects that can support the development of inquiry skills in either category. The teacher's response in this activity is positive. The conclusion of this training can improve the ability of teachers in designing and implementing laboratory activities of Science and then expected to positively affect the frequency of science laboratory activities. Usually teachers use learning by using this Laboratory Activity, it will be affected on the pattern of inquiry behavior to the students as well so that will achieve the expected goals. Teachers are expected to continue for other topics, even for other similarly characterized subjects. This habitation is important so that the teacher's skill in making Laboratory Activity continues to be well honed and useful for the students.

The Development of Laboratory Safety Questionnaire for Middle School Science Teachers

The purpose of this paper is to develop a “valid and reliable laboratory safety questionnaire” which could be used to identify science teachers’ understanding about laboratory safety issues during their science laboratory activities. The questionnaire was developed from a literature review and prior instruments developed on laboratory safety issues. To address content validity, the questionnaire was examined by experts from the field of science education. The questionnaire consists of 36 Likert-type items related to chemicals, usage of glassware equipment, fire and electrical control, personal protection, biological hazards, and emergency. The study was carried out with 127 teachers who have experience in science laboratories and work in middle schools in Turkey. The instrument was found to be internally consistent with high reliability scores. Significance value shows that the data come from a multivariate normal distribution and are suitable for factor analysis. The factor analysis indicates that the items in the questionnaire accumulate around a single dimension named as safety issues. The results provide evidence that the instrument is valid for further implementation on a wider scale and in larger samples. The results of this study showed that the questionnaire has an appropriate scale to determine the middle school science teachers’ understanding toward laboratory safety issues.

Self- and Teacher-Assessment of Science Process Skills

This study aimed to assess both basic (BSPS) and integrated science process skills (ISPS) level of proficiency among selected grade ten technical-vocational students. The study also examined the feasibility and value of utilizing the developed SPS assessment tool that supports the “assessment for learning” in teaching science. To measure the SPS level of proficiency, an instrument was developed based on the performance-based indicators of process skills (Miller 2006). After participating in science laboratory activities, the students assessed their SPS level of proficiency individually. Data were collected from the students' activity outputs, worksheets and self- and teacher-SPS score sheets. Findings revealed that the performance of subjects in the overall SPS was “average”. When categorized into basic and integrated process skills, the subjects showed “proficient” basic SPS (BSPS) and “average” integrated SPS (ISPS). There was no significant difference between the student and teacher assessment on both basic and integrated SPS. The results support the feasibility and value of utilizing an SPS score sheet as an assessment tool in addition to the performance rubrics for formative assessments. It was observed that the disclosure of students' progress and SPS level of proficiency made the students more focused in improving their SPS skills rather than their numerical grades. Based on these findings, the researchers advocate daily assessment of SPS and the use of both teacher and self-assessment of SPS as alternative or adjunct strategies in the assessment of SPS.

Growing our own pharmacists: Pharmacy high school minority summer camp

Minority enrollment in pharmacy schools across the nation continues to be low despite the increased diversity of the United States population. High school recruitment programs may be a means to increase minority interest and representation within the profession of pharmacy. A summer camp was offered to minority high school students with an interest in a future healthcare career. The goal of the camp was to change the perception of pharmacy as a future career choice in minority high school students. During the camp, students participated in community pharmacy visits, pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical science laboratory activities, campus tours along with faculty and pharmacy student interactions. Students indicated a positive change in their perception of a career in pharmacy after completion of the pharmacy summer camp. The camp may be used as a model to stimulate interest and awareness of pharmacy as a future career option among minority high school students.

Laboratory Activities in Israel

Laboratory activities have long had a distinctive and central role in the science curriculum, and science educators have suggested that many benefits accrue from engaging students in science laboratory activities. Many research studies have been conducted to investigate the educational effectiveness of laboratory work in science education in facilitating the attainment of the cognitive, affective, and practical goals. In Israel, on 2000, the chemical education committee, based on a needs assessment survey, recommended that the new syllabus include a whole unit of inquiry-based laboratory as part of the learning sequence. The reform highlighted the laboratory unit as the central component in the new curriculum. In this paper we will describe the chemistry laboratory curriculum in Israel, its development, implementation and assessment strategies.

PENGAJARAN SAINS DENGAN PRAKTIKUM LABORATORIUM: PERSPEKTIF DARI GURU-GURU SAINS SMPN DI KOTA CIMAHI

Science laboratory activities are important part of science learning at school level. However there are still debate about how we put in the context of science learning and best approach to use them. Using mixed methods, this research investigates science teachers’ perspectives regarding science laboratory activities in Cimahi, West Java, Indonesia at public junior secondary school level. There were sixty two teachers participated giving their answer and write their comments in the questionnaire, then followed with informal discussion. Some findings revealed: teachers view that laboratory work is to make students finding science facts and principle, their difficulty to conduct the activity which related to support needed, they require specific training about laboratory’ skills and management and their identification of science teachers preparation and competency.Keywords: science education, laboratory work, science in junior secondary school

The Using Of Prediction-Observation-Explanation Strategy In Science Laboratory: What Is The Sulphur’s Molecular-Weight?

Science laboratory activities have got an important position in science teaching. The main purpose of laboratory experiments in the science teachers train- ing program is to acquire some laboratory knowledge and skills for the prospective teachers. But it is known that science students don’t benefit from laboratory always adequately. Increasing the efficiency of laboratory activities is tried different labora- tory strategies that one of them is prediction-observation-explanation (POE) strategy. The purpose of this study is to design science laboratory experiments based on the prediction- observation- explanation (POE) strategy and to evaluate qualitativly the result of one experiment performed in the laboratory. The data were collected docu- ment analysis, interview and observation tecniques. One experiment called “the de- termining of the molecular-weight through depression-of-the-freezing-point” was performed in the laboratory and the results of application were given detailed. The findings showed that students pleased with the POE strategy in science laboratory.

Using a Science Writing Heuristic to enhance learning outcomes from laboratory activities in seventh‐grade science: quantitative and qualitative aspects

Science laboratory activities within secondary science have traditionally followed prescriptive outlines both in the structure and reporting of the activity. Building on current understandings of writing to learn science strategies, a Science Writing Heuristic has been developed that encourages students to examine laboratory activities much more carefully in terms of having to justify their research questions, claims and evidence. This study reports on the implementation of the heuristic within a Year 7 biology classroom. A mixed‐method approach was used to determine whether student performance on conceptual questions improved when using the heuristic and if using a more non‐traditional write‐up of laboratory activities was beneficial for students in terms of learning. Results indicate that students who used the Science Writing Heuristic performed better as a group than students who did not, and that students who completed a textbook explanation as a write‐up performed better as a group than those who completed a more traditional write‐up format. Student interview responses indicate a development of understanding of science inquiry and an awareness of cognitive and metacognitive processes needed to complete the activities.

The laboratory in science education: Foundations for the twenty‐first century

AbstractThe laboratory has been given a central and distinctive role in science education, and science educators have suggested that rich benefits in learning accrue from using laboratory activities. Twenty years have been elapsed since we published a frequently cited, critical review of the research on the school science laboratory (Hofstein & Lunetta, Rev. Educ. Res. 52(2), 201–217, 1982). Twenty years later, we are living in an era of dramatic new technology resources and new standards in science education in which learning by inquiry has been given renewed central status. Methodologies for research and assessment that have developed in the last 20 years can help researchers seeking to understand how science laboratory resources are used, how students' work in the laboratory is assessed, and how science laboratory activities can be used by teachers to enhance intended learning outcomes. In that context, we take another look at the school laboratory in the light of contemporary practices and scholarship. This analysis examines scholarship that has emerged in the past 20 years in the context of earlier scholarship, contemporary goals for science learning, current models of how students construct knowledge, and information about how teachers and students engage in science laboratory activities. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 88:28–54, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/.sce10106

From epistemic (ergotic) actions to scientific discourse

The role of gestures in communication is still debated: Some claim that gestures are merely ancillary forms of expressions, whereas others suggest a central role of gestures in the development of language. In this article, I provide data in support of the overarching hypothesis that gestures have a transitional function between ergotic/epistemic movements of hands and symbolic expressions. The context for the study of these transitions is constituted by school science laboratory activities conducted by students who are also asked to describe and explain while still within proximity of the materials of their investigations. It is hypothesized that communication is distributed across the context (verbal, gestural, material) and shifts increasingly into a verbal modality as students become familiar with the phenomena they are to learn about. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that initial temporal delays between gestures and the corresponding words decrease and finally disappear so that gestural and verbal modalities coincide. It is suggested that engaging in communication in the presence of material has an important cognitive function in that it affords a distribution of cognition across different modalities until individuals have developed the competence to express themselves effectively in the verbal modality.

Children as experimenters

In science education the nature and value of science laboratory activities are the subject of critical debate. We believe a better understanding of what students do and think while purposefully engaged with materials will provide insights. The intent of this study is to explore elementary students’ actions and the knowledge they use while conducting an investigative task. Eight grade 4 and eight grade 7 students participated in the study. The problem and the materials within the task invoked a selection of knowledge schemes from the students’ personal repertoires. This knowledge appears to have included: models of magnetism and ‘strength'; procedures and specific strategies that prescribe how to find a solution. Our findings document ways the students comprehended the problem, what they manipulated, how they monitored what they observed, how they interpreted the results, and the strategies they used for deciding on a conclusion.