The effect of a science camp on the children's views of scientific inquiry

The purpose of this study, children teach different aspects of scientific research doing research at the nature. Nature of scientific inquiry was defined by Schwartz, Lederman, and Lederman (2008). They determined seven aspects of NOSI. These are a) scientific questions guide investigations, b) multiple methods of scientific investigations, c) multiple purposes of scientific investigations, d) justification of scientific knowledge, e) recognition and handling of anomalous data, f) distinctions between data and evidence, g) community of practice.The science camp was conducted on 30 July-6 August 2011 and supported by Science and Society Department of Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. The participants were 23 6th and 7th graders.The core of the science camp program consisted of explicit guided-inquiry at the nature. The children conducted four guided-inquiries at the nature. Each inquiry lasted about four hours and conducted on nearby plants, animals, water, and soil. They formed research groups of four children and guided by a science advisor. They asked a research question about the subject of the inquiry, designed their inquiry, and went to the related site, collect samples or first-hand data at the site. Then, they analyzed and interpreted their data and answered their research question. At the end of each session, a science advisor monitored the presentation of each group's inquiry, discussed NOSI aspects in context, and made explicit.VOSI-S instrument was applied as pre-test, post-test, and retention-test after two months. To validate the questionnaire data, five children were interviewed. Coding scheme was developed from explanations in Schwartz et al. (2008). Two questionnaires were coded together to negotiate codes. Then, they coded five questionnaires independently and reliability was 89%. Thus second researcher completed coding.Better developments were observed in the NOSI aspects of multiple methods of scientific investigations, justification of scientific knowledge, and distinctions between data and evidence, and scientific questions guide investigations. Participating children had no idea at all about these four NOSI aspects at the beginning, but they learnt these aspects and responded better at the post-test, and most of their learning was retained. The science camp program was less effective in developing `multiple purposes of scientific investigations' aspect. It was not effective in developing `community of practice' aspect. The NOSI aspect of `scientific questions guide investigations' lessened more at the retention-test. The reason would be cultural use of `selecting a subject for the research' rather than `asking a research question'.Their understanding of the process of scientific inquiry was also developed and retained. The children usually defined types of activities that scientists do at their work as investigating and doing research at the beginning. These were very general terms defining scientific inquiry. But, at the post-test, they usually stated that scientists do experiments, observe, collect data, produce evidence from data, and make conclusions which were more specific definition of scientific inquiry.Keywords: Science Education, Scientific Inquiry, Science Camp, VOSI.