Browsing by Subject "työtapa"

There has been a decline in the interest of children and the young in natural sciences. This phenomenon is worrying because it is known that interest affects learning and performing in science positively. Teaching methods have an impact on interest. This research will focus on science camps that are non-formal science education environments. The study describes the interestingness of the teaching methods used in biology science camps from a child's perspective. The study also investigates the development needs of the activities and the tutors' own development during the camps. In the summer of 2016, the BioPop class of the LUMA science education center organized six biology science camps for two age groups of children: 7–9 years old and 10–12 years old. The material of the research was collected from these science camps, while the researcher herself was a tutor of the science camps. The research material consisted of questionnaires for campers (N=99) and tutors (N=8). The campers evaluated the interestingness of the activities on the Flechen-scale from 1 to 5, and filled out open-ended questions about what they 'liked' and what they did 'not like' in the camps. In addition, the tutors evaluated the interestingness and development needs of the activities, and their own development as tutors. The material was analyzed by using simple statistical key figures. It was analyzed by Mann-Whitney U-test whether gender or previous participation in BioPop camps had any effect on the interestingness of the activities. The open-ended questions were analyzed by theory-based content analysis. The campers were very interested in the activities – lab assignments and experiments, outdoor education, plays and nature videos were the most interesting activities. The results of the research supported previous studies of the relationship between teaching methods and interest in teaching natural sciences: for children, functional, inquiry-based and interactive teaching methods were the most interesting. Child's sense of autonomy, optimal challenge and novelty of the activities seemed to be central to children's interest. There were significant differences between the camps in the interestingness of some activities: activities gained mostly higher interest rates on the second camp week than the first. One possible explanation for this is the development of the activity guidance, in which the tutors think they had advanced during the camps. Especially in the older age group, inquiry-based, pupil-centered and interactive activities were the most interesting among children. The younger age group was more interested in independent and teacher-led activities compared to the older age group. Girls were more interested in independent and teacher-led activities than boys. The results of the research can be utilized in the future when developing science camps more inquiry-based, pupil-centered and interactive learning environments of science education.