The role of popular science articles in teaching science: The example of atom concept

The main target of this research is to the knowledge level of middle school students about atom concept and to determine the effect of popular science articles on the change of knowledge level. In this research, the case study of qualitative researches was used as a suitable of this purpose. In this research, there are 112 students of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades of a middle school in Aksaray city centre. In this research, open ended questions and meeting questions were benefitted to determine the knowledge of the students about the atom concept and the source of this knowledge. The answers of open ended questions and meeting questions the students answered were analysed. In this research, by the obtained findings it was seen that after the popular science articles were read a great majority of students identify the concept of atom correctly, maintain the particles of atom correctly, students answer the questions correctly about the size of atom and these size comparisons. In this research, based on the atom concept, the effect of popular science articles on learning science was researched. In the result of the research, the positive benefits of popular science articles were seen in teaching atom concept. Based on this, by using popular science articles in sciences and the other major area courses, teaching of other concepts and courses is important to be given effectively. Keywords: Teaching science, Popular science articles, The concept of atom