UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI
Faculty, Department
Faculty of Education Department of Teacher Education
Author
Vahtera, Sari Annikki
Title
Time and Space – A Science Education Experiment Based on Activity Learning
Subject, Level, Month and year, Number of pages
Education, M.A.Thesis, October 1991, 72p. (29 app.)
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to find out the conception that 12 to 13-year-olds participating in the Heureka science camp have on everyday astronomical phenomena and how their conceptions change during the camp due to functional science education. The starting point of the study was that the campers who learn to make observations on near astronomical phenomena also understand them better than the campers who familiarise themselves with the subject through the presentation of a camp counsellor. In this study, functional science education refers to a problem-oriented teaching method constructed in the form of a game.
The research material was collected in the summer of 1991 on a science camp held by the Heureka science centre. The students were aged 12 to 13, and the total number of test subjects was 20. A thinking development level test based on Piaget's theory was performed on them, and the results were used for dividing them into test and control groups so that both groups had an equal number of representatives with different levels of thinking development. Before the teaching event, the conceptions of the test subjects on near astronomy were studied using a multiple choice questionnaire. The changes in the conceptions were studied using a retrospective questionnaire and concept maps which the test subjects made before and after the teaching event. The concept maps were graded using the Novak and Gowin points method. The greatest interest of the study was in the quality analysis of the concept maps. Differences between groups were studied by comparing the average scores.
After a common planetarium teaching session, the test subjects played the Ptolemaios game and the control group studied astronomy instructed by a tutor.
Both groups learned about astronomy. The final achievements showed no statistically significant differences between the groups. The conceptions on near astronomy were similar to those found in previous studies. 12 to 13-year-olds know the reasons for the times of day well and the principles of seasonal changes to some degree but cannot explain the phases of the Moon. The interaction between a planet and a star appeared to be unclear.
The concept map was an interesting study tool. It gave important information on what the campers learned about time and space during the science camp.
Key words
Concept map, science education, teaching method, thought development, Sun, Moon and Earth
Where deposited
The Library of the Faculty of Education (also available at Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre)
