Summer science camp for middle school students: A Turkish

The students' knowledge in biology day activities

The students' understanding in terms of broad category was classified such as blood, genetic parents, bacteria, virus and process of activities. The listing of numbers for correct/partial/misconception/no answer replies is across these categories. As seen table 5, their responses were very varied and limited to each sub category.

**Table 5. The students' understanding content knowledge about all activities in Biology day**
Broad Category	Correct n	Partial n	Misconception n	No Response n
Blood cells	3	5		2
Functions	3			7
Blood plasma	1			9
Blood	7	5	-	1
Structure of DNA	1	1		8
Location of DNA	2	1		7
DNA bases	4	1		5
DNA pairs	3			7
Chromosome		2		8
Gen	2			8
Monohybrid cross	1			9
Nature of Cloning	1	5	1	3
Genetic Parents	6	5	1	-
Structure of cell		1		9
Growth	2			8
Living areas	1		1	8
Diversity	2			8
Tolerance against antibiotic			2	8
Bacteria	5	1	2	3
Living area	2			8
Diversity	1			9
Tolerance against antibiotic	1			9
Virus	3	-	-	7
Strange DNA	2	2		6
Blood type identification	2	4		4
Lets Clone a mouse	1	6		2
Bacteria Cultivation	2	1		7
Process of Activities	4	8	-	-

For blood concept, whilst 7 students gave correct answers, 5 students gave partial correct answers. The students have no misconception and only one student did not mention about blood concept. Some students' correct and partial correct answers were given below.

Correct answers:
I learned that erythrocyte red color in blood and oxygen are carried by erythrocytes and also I learned that the role of white blood cells is to defense body against microbes. Moreover, I learned that the role of thrombyetes is to clott the blood in human body (Mertcan).
Partial correct answers:
I learned that Erythrocyte gives red color to blood and white blood cell fight microbes (Deniz).

For concept of genetic parents, whilst 6 students answered correctly, 5 students answered partially. Moreover, one student had misconception. The student stated that the mouse has same amount of chromosome with human. The following quotations show some students' correct and partial correct answers.

Figure 1. Çagrı's drawing on reflective journal (translated to English)

Regarding the concept of genetic parents as broad category, the students did not represent comprehensive understanding particularly about cloning. Field notes during observation supported this finding. Some students said: 'The stages of cloning were very difficult and confusing'. The reason of that the students faced first cloning including many abstract and complexes concepts in science camp. Similarly, Wenville and Donovan (2007) stated that one potential reason for this occasion might be the submicroscopic and abstract nature of the concepts of the genetics. However, most students were surprised during the activity referred to "let's clone a mouse". The students were very curious about how the mouse's cell can be extracted and transferred to another mouse. They wondered especially about how a mouse's could have the same features such as sex after being cloned. Therefore, they asked a lot of questions in this step to understand the process. This might indicate that cloning activity is an effective motivational factor which got students' attention. Therefore, the students interested in biology even if it is confusing for them.

For concept of bacteria, whilst 5 students stated the correct answer, one student stated partial correct answer. Besides, 2 students had misconception. The students who has misconception stated that bacteria are not affected antibiotics like virus. Also, 3 students did not mention about bacteria. Some students' answers were given below to show their correct, partial correct understandings, and misconceptions.

Correct answer:
I learned that useful bacteria exist, such as bacteria providing fermentation of yogurt. I learned if we expect swab anywhere to called bacteria and then cultivate it (Salih).
Partial correct answer:
I learned some features of bacteria such as its living areas and their reproduction period (Zeynep).
Misconceptions:
I learned that bacteria are not affected by antibiotic (Selin).
I learned that bacteria grow at that same time viruses do not affected by antibiotic because they live in vivo (Deniz).

For concept of virus, whilst 3 students gave correct answers, any of the students gave the answers related to partial correct and misconception categories. Besides, seven students did not mention about virus concept. The followings include some students responses related to correct and partial correct categories.

Correct answer:
I learned that virus lives inside the cells (İpek).
Partial correct answers:
We understand the life cycle of the bacteria and the viruses (Salih).

During the Drama time, the students read poetry related to features of bacteria and virus while they were performing role of virus and bacteria. As a result of this, whilst majority of the students showed a considerable understanding on some features of bacteria and virus, a few of them did not understand these concepts. One potential reason of this might be that activity of drama time is performed as group because in group activities, the students can encourage each other.

For the process of activities, whilst 4 students answered correctly, 8 students answered partially. Also there is no misconception about the process of activities.

Correct answer:
I learned how to identify blood group. First we dropped three drops blood on lam, and then we dropped Anti A on one of blood drops, Anti B on other of blood drops and Anti D on the other. Than if sedimentation occurs in A, it means A protein exists. On the other hand, if sedimentation occurs in B, it means B protein exists. However, if sedimentation does not occur in D, it means Rh factor is negative. If sedimentation occurs in D, it means Rh factor is positive (Elif).
Partial correct answer:
I learned if I drop some chemical matters on blood, I can identify which groups they are. I had the result of which group exist in sedimentations (İsmail).

While the students' understanding in some categories (topic) was depth such as genetic parents, blood, process of activities and bacteria, only three students showed understanding about virus. The students represented correct understanding about blood (7), genetic parents (6), bacteria (5), process of activities (4) and virus (3), respectively. Also, they indicated partial understanding about process of activities (8), genetic parents (7) and blood (5) whereas there was not partial understanding about bacteria and virus. Besides, these findings showed that misconceptions identified in some biology topics such as cloning, bacteria. It is believed that most of the misconceptions are originated from students' experiences from daily life. The commonality of the misconceptions across different populations suggest that outside effects such as instructional practices, textbooks and the excessive reliance on everyday language should be considered as potential sources of misunderstandings (Yalçın et al., 2009). The other potential reason for the misunderstanding is that genetics and bacteria concepts are submicroscopic and abstract.

One of the interesting finding which the students mentioned in their reflective journal is that how the process of biology day activities occur instead of what knowledge they learn from each biology day activity. This showed us that reflective journal prompted some questions which are required to revise for future study.

The students' interests toward biology and career decisions related to biology

During the pretest, 3 students indicated that they were interested in biology, but this number increased to 9 for the post-test (see Table 6). The research have pointed out that similar results were found in some studies which conducted with quantitative approach (Gibson and Chase, 2002; Knox et al., 2003; Markowitz, 2004; Orstein, 2006; Prokop et al., 2007).. On the other hand, this study also investigated why the students changed their ideas, which this is a different investigation from the other studies done in this field. Moreover, in the pretest, students who were not interested in biology argued that it was hard, boring and they did not like it.

**Table 6. Students' interest towards Biology in the pre and post test.**
	Pre- test		Post-test
I am interested in biology	3	I am interested in biology	9
I am not interested in biology	7	I am not interested in biology	1
I want to chose a job related to biology	1	I want to chose a job related to biology	4
I don't want to chose a job related to biology	9	I don't want to chose a job related to biology	6

Whilst 7 students stated that they were not interested in biology in the pre-test, only one student stated that he was not interested in. This result shows that students changed their opinion against biology in a positive way. They explained the reason for changing their ideas as that they liked the activities such as DNA, cloning, blood types. They also stated they found biology fun, feat, amusing, and enjoyable. The only student who did not change his mind about biology argued that biology was more boring than the other science subjects. Some students' responses were illustrated below:

'..before I came to the camp, I had not liked some biology topics. However, after camp all of my ideas changed. Biology is so funny lesson. But I didn't know it before.' (Mertcan)
'..because we performed a lot of activities which I didn't know before. The most attractive for me to learn is that our blood types by dropping anti A, anti B and anti D.' (Zeynep)
' I learned DNA and how to clone a mouse. It was a great experience for me.'(Çağrı)

While only one student stated that she wanted to choose a career related to biology in the pre-test, 3 more students showed their interest against biology related to career selection after the biology day activities. The students stated the reasons of their interests in career regarding biology as their curiosity on living things, DNA, and cloning. In addition, they highlighted that they were interested in biology because it gives them a lot of knowledge about the living things. The others who they didn't want to choose biology-related career explained their reason as they wanted to chose other jobs such as computer science, policeman, math teacher. In general, Biology and science are not considered attractive careers (Prokop et al. 2007). In this context, we can say that this science camp has impact on students' career decision. Science camps like this may be a trigger interest biology related career. Similarly, a report on the evaluation of the National Science Foundation Informal Science Education Program pointed out that many adults with science –related careers credit their initial interest in science to these non-formal programs such as science camps (NSF, 1998).

As seen table 7, in biology pretest, seven students found that biology is related to daily life; on the other hand, in the post-test nine students thought that biology is connected to daily life. Besides, in pretest and post-test, the students who considered biology is related to daily life argued that biology is connected with living things, systems, diseases and feeding.

**Table 7. The students' perceptions whether Biology is related to daily life or not.**
Statement	Pretest		Posttest
Biology is related to daily life	7	Biology is related to daily life	9
Biology is not related to daily life	3	Biology is not related to daily life	-
No response	-	No response	1
Total	10	Total	10
*One student who thought biology related to daily life during the posttest did not answer the same question for the post test.

In the pretest, three students found biology is not related to daily life. However, in the post-test, none of students argued that it is unrelated to daily life.* In pretest the students stated that biology contains useless knowledge and also most people can't use the knowledge which they learned in their daily life. This result showed consistency with Science and Engineering Indicators' report (1998).

Even though students gave 18 indifferent concepts in the pretest, the number of indifferent answers decreased to 8 in the post test (see Table 8). Moreover, in pretest, the concepts given by students related to biology are environment, fungi mold, bacteria, health, human, biology laboratory, life cycle, ecosystem, diseases, hospital, muscles, birth, blood pressure, reproduction, energy, organism, blood types, and DNA. However, in the post test, the concepts given by students related to biology are that experiment tube, mouse, microscopic living things, simulation, bacteria cultivation bones, organs, and eyes.

**Table 8. The concepts of students connected with biology**
Connected Concepts	Pretest	Connected concepts	Posttest
Cell	5	DNA	8
Living things	6	Bacteria	7
Plants	4	Blood	7
System	3	Virus	6
Animal	3	Cell	5
Science technology	2	Cloning	4
Life	2	Our body	3
Our body	2	Blood type	2
Bones	2	Animal	2
Others *	18	Others	8
*One response

To illustrate, whilst only one student thought that DNA is a related biology concept in the pre-test, this number increased to 8 in the post test. Besides, whilst none of the students thought that bacteria, virus, blood type and cloning were related to biology in the post-test, some students (7, 7, 6 and 4 students, respectively) found that these concepts are related to biology. This finding showed that the content of biology day activities might affect students' perception of association between biology and daily life.

Which activity or activities did you perform best in Biology day/ which activity or activities were you forced in Biology day?

As seen Table 9, five students thought that the activity referred to 'Let's make DNA and eat' was the best one. They stated that the activity was very enjoyable. Besides, they indicated that they matched DNA sequence correctly, understood the structure of DNA very well. Four students thought that the activity referred to 'strange DNAs' was the hardest one. It was caused that they had an experience with DNA first time during the activity and to gargle salty water was hard for them because that was pretty bit. None of students thought that the activities referred to "strange DNAs", "Let's make blood with candies" or "Drama time: Bacteria and virus" were the best ones. Surprisingly, none of them found that the activity referred to "Let's clone a mouse" was the hardest one. However, field notes which are undertaken during observation argued that the student had difficulty in understanding the nature of cloning. The reason of this might be that they did not evaluate this activity taking into account the content of it. One of the students chose more than one activity as the best and the hardest activity.

**Table 9. The students' perceptions about the best and the hardest activity**
Activity	Best	Hard
Strange DNAs	-	4
Let's make DNA and eat	5	1
Let's clone a mouse	3	-
Let's make blood with candies	-	1
What is my blood type?	1	1
Drama Time	-	2
Bacteria cultivation	2	2