The evalution of the effect of project-based learning model on chemistry education students? understanding of alkanes and their attitudes towards chemistry and environment

The study is carried out in order to determine the effects of project based learning on Chemistry Education students? understanding of alkanes and environment knowledge and their attitudes towards chemistry and environment.This study was applied to a total of 28 students who were educated in Gazi University Department of Chemistry Education in fall semester of 2007-2008 education year. The students were divided into two groups. One of this groups was taken as the control group and the other one as the experiment group. In the experiment group the subject of alkanes was taught according to project based learning model during 3 weeks, while during the same period in the control group the subject was taught according to traditional teaching approach.In this research pre-test/ post-test with control grouped design was used. ?Concept Test?, ?Environmental Knowledge Test?, ?Environment Behaviour Scale?, ?Environment Attitude Scale?, ?Chemistry Attitude Scale? and ?The Scientific Process Skill Test? were used for data collecting. All tests and scales were given to students as pre-test and post-test. In the experiment group ?Project Study Evaluation Form?, ?Project Proficiency Form? and ?Efficiency Evaluation Form? were used to determine the students? ideas about project based learning.For statistical processes SPSS 11.0 Programme was used. Mann Whitney U Test was used to test the hypothesis of the study. The 0,05 significant levels were used to evaluate whether the obtained datas were meaningful or not.The results of this study indicated that there was significant difference in favor of the experiment group according to ?Concept Test? and ?Environment Knowledge Test? scores. No other significant differences were observed between the two compared groups according to other tests scores. It was determined that students? knowledge of alkanes and environment would be increased by project based learning applications.Key Words: Chemistry Education, Project Based Learning, Attitude, The Scientific Process Skill