Effectiveness of home laboratory activities in student success in science education

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the home experiment activities on the student's science achievement, which is based on the constructivist laboratory approach and scientific process skills. Pre-test and post-test control group were used in this experimental design. The study was carried out with 47 6th grade students in Kastamonu province. During the four weeks of science classes, in a 24-person experimental group activities developed based on constructivist approach and scientific process skills were applied. In the control group of 23 people, the research was conducted with activities that were insufficient in terms of scientific processes, verified for information purposes and all application steps were mentioned. The research data were collected through the Scientific Achievement Test developed by the researcher. The achievement test was applied to the students as "pretest - posttest" before and after the experiment and the quantitative data obtained were analyzed using the SPSS statistical package program. Through this study, students were able to gain the necessary achievement in the science course by using their own cognitive processes, starting from the experiments they had done in the home environment. As a result of the research, it was seen that the activities were developed in terms of achievements related to scientific process skills, that these activities were applicable and that there was a significant difference in favor of the experimental group in terms of academic achievement between experimental and control groups.