THE EFFECT OF PROJECT-BASED EDUCATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LESSON ON THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS SKILLS OF 4TH GRADE ELEMENTARY PUPILS

The way of doing a project is a scientist’s way to access to knowledge or to form information. So to put the students into the project work means that they gain scientific process skills and use them. In this study, the effect of science projects undertaken by elementary pupils on the scientific process skills level was examined. The research was designed according to one of the Fen ve Teknoloji Dersinde Proje Tabanlı Öğretimin İlkokul 4. Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Bilimsel Süreç Becerilerine Etkisi 1624 experimental research models, pre-test post-test designs, with a control group experimental method. The study group of the research consists of a total of 33 pupils from the 4th grades of an elementary school in Kadikoy, Istanbul. A total of 6 project groups of primarily three individuals were formed as experimental group of the study. The other students of the class those didn’t do science projects formed the control group. The study was conducted under the guidance of researchers by a total of 6 project groups with six project topics determined by the researchers. Scientific process skills test and problem scenarios test that was prepared by the researchers were applied to all groups before and after the project applications. Data from the tests analyzed with SPSS 16.00 program. At the end of the study according to the comparison of scientific process skills average points of post-tests of both groups, a significant difference in favor of the experimental group was found. In addition to this, according to problem scenarios test results control group students didn’t have any development on defining a problem, hypothesis and proposing an experiment; experimental group students had significant development on this way. These results demonstrate that the project studies are significantly effective in increasing the scientific process skills of fourth grade pupils.