| Summary: | This exploratory case study documented the conceptions of experimentation of four
Science 9/10 honour students prior to, during, and after their participation in a science fair that
took place in a high school setting. The four student participants consisted of: a male and a
female student with experience in a science fair, and a male and a female student with no
experience in a science fair. The data for this study were the students'journals and responses
to a questionnaire, and in-depth phenomenological interviews.
At the start of the science fair, all four students had an everyday sense of
experimentation: trying or carrying out a procedure and learning from the experience. One of
the four students also had a scientific sense of experimentation: identifying variables and
figuring out the procedure to solve a problem. As the students worked on their science fair
projects, they reiterated their initial conceptions of experimentation. The students also
elaborated on their conceptions by adding that experiments: can be "formal" or "informal,"
answer questions, involve "creativity," and are a part of a learning process. By the end of the
science fair, all but one of the students kept their initial conceptions of experimentation.
Documenting the above students' conceptions of typical science classroom activities,
such as structured laboratory activities and demonstration, was also an integral part of this
study. In general the students' thoughts on the above activities were similar to their
conceptions of experimentations. The greater the amount of hands-on involvement and input to
the procedure from the student, the more likely the students considered the activity an
experiment.
An examination of the type of investigation the students' conducted for their projects
showed that three of the projects could be classified as the engineering model of
experimentation while the fourth project could be classified as the science model of
experimentation. The above classification provided insight on the rationales behind the
students' conceptions of experimentation. This study has implications for both teachers and researchers. Specifically, it implies
that students have ideas about experimentation and these ideas need to be incorporated in
science classroom activities and the students' own investigations. By deliberately engaging
students to think about the nature of science and scientific inquiry, students can move towards
scientific experimentation. === Education, Faculty of === Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of === Graduate
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