Determination of middle school students views on space researches and argumentation levels through astronomy workshop activities

Developments in science in today's world, where technology is advancing rapidly and accessing information is easier, bring about a process that involves dilemmas regarding the ethical and moral values of individuals as well as the provision of basic scientific information to society. Space exploration refers to a perspective that examines scientific endeavors to explore and understand the universe, as well as the social, cultural, economic and political implications of these endeavors. Space exploration aims to understand the interactions and relationships between society and space exploration and technologies. This research aimed to determine the opinions and argumentation levels of secondary school students about space research, which is a socioscientific subject. Pretest-posttest single-group experimental design constitutes the model of the research. The research was conducted face to face with 25 secondary school students studying in the 2022-2023 academic year, according to a 10-week planning. The activities in the implementation process were prepared and implemented by the researcher. Expert opinion was taken while developing the implementation process. In face-to-face applications, students were divided into groups of five. In this way, it was ensured that all students fully performed the activities, repeated them, took an active role in each application and interacted. The "Space Studies Opinion Form" prepared by the researcher after receiving expert opinion was used as a data collection tool. The data obtained from the research were analyzed by content analysis. In determining the argumentation levels, the argumentation tables prepared in accordance with the Toulmin Argument Model were analyzed. "Argumentation Evaluation Rubric" developed by Erduran et al. (2004) was used to determine the argumentation levels of the students. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the diversity of students' views on space exploration, which was handled as a socioscientific subject, increased. It was seen that astronomy workshop activities prepared for space exploration had an effect on students' argumentation levels. When the literature was examined within the scope of the research, no study based on space exploration as a socioscientific subject was found. Since this topic is seen as missing in the literature, researchers are recommended to conduct studies on this topic. Keywords: socioscientific issues, argumentation, levels of argümantation, space researches