Examining the interactive simulation experiences of science teachers and 7th grade students

Today, technology has become an impossible part of the education and training process. With the development of technology, many experiments aimed to reach large masses, especially expensive, dangerous and inaccessible experiments, have begun to be offered to people in virtual laboratories as interactive simulations. "Virtual Laboratory", is a kind of laboratory simulator; It is a computer program that performs the studies done in the laboratory in a computer environment for educational purposes. Virtual laboratories, which have many examples in the world and our country and are frequently used especially in science education, have started to be implemented by Higher Education institutions to be offered to the universities in our country during the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic process that has affected the world. In the light of this information, this study aims to examine the virtual laboratory experiences of seventh-grade students in the Science course. The study was carried out with the participation of 35 secondary school students and 58 science teachers, who were studying in a private children's club in Niğde City Center. The critical case sampling method, one of the non-random purposive sampling methods, was used while forming the study group. The research was planned to be conducted with the mixed method. In the research, one of the mixed method designs, the convergent parallel design, which is formed by the simultaneous application of quantitative and qualitative stages in the research process, was used. The implementation period of the study lasted 8 weeks, and the pHeT Interactive simulations of the University of Colorado were used with permission. In the research, a structured interview form of teacher opinions was used for the teachers who participated in the study as a data collection tool. For students, pre-test student achievement comprehension tests, post-test student achievement comprehension tests, students' opinion survey about virtual laboratory, academic achievement test regarding pretest virtual experiments, academic achievement test regarding post-test virtual experiments, student experiment diary, experiment evaluation rubric, 21st-century skills questionnaire for students, attitude scale for the science lesson, interest scale for science subjects, teacher observation rubric, student views on the process and a structured interview form were used. Qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive, analysis, difference, and relationship analysis, respectively. According to the results of the research, virtual laboratory experiments increased the interest of the students in the Science lesson, made the lesson more fun for the students, and comprehended the subjects they could not comprehend more easily through virtual laboratory experiments. In addition, virtual laboratory experiments positively affected students' attitudes and academic achievements. The reasons for the teachers not using virtual laboratory experiments were the lack of knowledge about virtual laboratory experiments, difficulties in finding experiments that matched the curriculum, time constraints, lack of technological infrastructure, and inability to use computers. While virtual experiments offer equality of opportunity in a way, they are economical, safe, and time-independent; limited availability for students; The fact that not every student has a tablet, computer, phone, and internet package causes inequality of opportunity in some aspects. Considering the results obtained; It can be recommended to increase the internet infrastructure in schools and make it available to students, to raise awareness of science teachers about virtual laboratories, and to make using virtual laboratories a natural part of their lessons. Keywords: Virtual Laboratory, Interactive Simulation, Middle School Students, science education, PHeT Colorado