Science notebook practice for science lesson: A research on fourth grades

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of writing science notebooks on learners' academic achievement, science process skills, attitudes and retention levels in the fourth grade science classes of elementary school. For this purpose, pre and post test controlled group model was used in this research. The experiment related to the study was carried out during the second term of 2014-2015 academic year. The study was conducted with the students of 4/A and 4/C classes of a primary school which is located in the center of Eskişehir city and the study lasted for eight weeks. The data gathering instruments of the study were; Personal Information Form, Achievement Test, lesson plans and materials, Science Process Skills Scale, Science Attitude Scale. The statistical analysis of the data of the study was computed through using SPSS software program. In analysis of the data Wilcoxon tests were applied for the samples which are related and Mann Whitney U tests were applied for the non-related samples. The level of statistical meaningfulness was nominated as 0.05. As a result of study, experimental group showed more significant mean difference of the academic achievement, science process skills, retention level in favor of the control group. The results show that students' attitudes toward science were improved. Key Words: Elementary school, science education, science notebooks, science and technology