Effect of the nature of science activities on 7th grade students' views of science (Kirsehir sample)

In this study, it was investigated the effects of newly designed alternative nature of science activities for 7th grade students on students' opinions about nature of science. In the study, the VNOS- E (Views of Nature of Science Elementary Level) questionnaire about the nature of science of primary school students developed by Lederman and Ko (2004) as pre-test and post-test, semi-structured interviews using VNOS-E and worksheets about activities were used as data collection tools. Six original activities were designed according to the 7th grade curriculum. The pilot activities were conducted with 27 students during the 1st semester of 2016-2017 education year. The activities and worksheets were organized considering the results of the pilot study, and in the second semester of the academic year of 2016/2017, the main activities were carried out with 25 middle school 7th grade students. The questionnaire on the nature of science consists of seven open-ended questions. The questionnaire was applied to a single group as pretest and posttest, and it was analyzed by triple categorization method. Profiles about the effects of the activities before and after application were determined, and comparison of both effects was investigated. In addition, the worksheets filled out by the students during the activities were analyzed in terms of their contents. At the end of the study, it appears that there is a statistically significant difference between the opinions of the students about the themes of nature of science before and after the activities are applied. These results show that the use of the activities prepared in the science class has contributed significantly to the improvement of students' opinions on the nature of science for each theme. In addition, it has been determined that the designed and applied nature science activities with in the scope of this study have a positive effect on the students' opinions about the nature of science. Keywords: Nature of science, Nature of science activities, Box activity examples, VNOS-E questionnaire