Science education through game and physical activities: An interdisciplinary teaching practice

The purpose of this study, was to examine the effect of science teaching through Game and Physical Activities course in accordance with interdisciplinary teaching approaches on students learning of science concepts. The current study was conducted in the fall semester of 2014-2015 academic year. The participants were 82 third grade students from a public elementary school located in Eskisehir-Tepebasi. Three classes formed the experimental group and a class formed the control group in the school. In the first experimental group, the teacher taught target science concepts before conducting the activities. In the second experimental group, the teacher introduced science concepts with the help of questions just in time as they appeared or needed to be practiced in the activity. In the last experimental group, students played the games firstly and then the teacher asked questions to allow inquiry so that students could make connections between the science concepts and actions conducted in the game. In the control group a textbook, various ancillary books and a web-based learning platform were used. The instructions lasted five weeks. Every week, three lesson hours were used in the science course. A total of twelve game-based physical activities were used during science lessons of the experimental groups. The instructions were given by classroom teachers. The data were collected by two achievement test, the first one called KTBT developed by the researcher and second one from the instructional materials of the control group. Moreover, an attitude questionnaire was used. Research design of the study was pretest-posttest control group design. Data obtained from the KTBT were analyzed through One-way ANOVA indicated that there was a significant mean difference among the groups. Post-hoc analysis showed that achievement level of the second and third experimental groups was significantly higher than that of the control group. This test was also administered as a retention test and ANOVA shoved that there was a significant mean difference among the control group and all experimenteal groups. There was no significant mean difference between the groups on the scores obtained from the EPBT. EPBT was also administered as a retention test and ANOVA indicated that there was a significant mean difference between the control group and second experimental group. The questionnaire data indicated that all experimental groups had higher scores on enthusiasm about science, interest to science, and importance in science than the control group. The retention questionnaire data indicated that all experimental groups had higher scores on enthusiasm about science, interest to science, importance of science and achievement-motivation than the control group. The results suggested that Game and Physical Activities course in accordance with interdisciplinary teaching approaches could be used in increasing science achievement, retention and to develop a positive attitude towards science. Key Words: Interdisciplinary teaching, science education, game and physical activities, elementary school.