The nature of science and science people in children's journals: Case of Science Children's journal

Today, understanding science and the nature of science is important and necessary for raising scientifically literate individuals. Many sources are effective in the formation of knowledge and thoughts about science. One of them is journals that are from mass media. In this research, it is aimed to determine the elements of the nature of science and the characteristics of the scientists in the cartoons "Stroies about Scientist with Simit and Peynir" of the Science Kid (originally named Bilim Çocuk) journal, which is a journal for children, published by TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). In the study, document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. 168 cartoons' were analyzed in the issues of the journal between the years 2007 and 2020. In the analysis, the "Nature of Science Elements Checklist" and "Scientist Characteristics Checklist" prepared by the researchers were used. In the study, it was determined that many features related to the nature of science and characteristics of scientists were mentioned in the cartoons. The most commonly mentioned elements regarding the nature of science were "scientific knowledge based on evidence", "importance of the observation in scientific studies", "scientific knowledge as a combination of observations, and inferences." The least mentioned elements were "scientific studies are influenced by the political, social and cultural structure of the society", and "scientific knowledge is tentative". Regarding the characteristics of scientists, it was determined that being "curious" and "good observer" were the elements mentioned the most, and "having imagination" was the least emphasized one. It could be said that the cartoon narratives in the journal are good tools for creating an accurate knowledge and thoughts about the nature of science and image of the scientists.