The Effect of Science Festival on Participants` Attitudes Towards Science

Authors : Ebru YILMAZ İNCE, Ahmet KABUL, İbrahim DİLER

Pages : 88-99

View : 19 | Download : 13

Publication Date : 2022-01-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Science festival aims to spread the science culture and communication to wider sections of the society, to provide scientific knowledge to the participants and to comprehend the interaction between science and technology through activities. 30 regional and original events prepared by the units within our university, such as “Adventure of Rose Oil and Rose Water” and “Lavender Perfume” will be realized. The proposed activities include workshops, experimental applications, interactive applications, observation, competitions, collaborative group works, field studies, exhibitions and demonstrations, interviews, and sports activities to attract everyone`s attention from 7 to 77. The event aims to present scientific knowledge to the participants within the framework of applied sciences. In addition to regional projects in agriculture, forestry, technology, and aquaculture science, participants at the Science Festival of Isparta University of Applied Sciences as well as activities such as “Reproduction of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants”, “Survival and Camping in Nature” and “Arduino” aims to provide. In order to enable the participants to take an active role in the realization of the activities, the activities were diversified in each activity using different types of activities. The scientific attitude scale was used to determine the gains, experiences, and opinions of the participants within the scope of the planned activities. In the study, the level of the science fair participants` attitudes towards science and gender difference in the attitudes of science fair participants towards science, and opinions and suggestions of the participants about the Science Festival are determined. Within the scope of that, the scientific attitude scale and an open-ended question is used. In the scientific attitude scale, there are 40 items structured to explain the nature of science, the way scientists work, and how the participants feel about science. After the survey items, an open-ended question was asked to reflect opinions and suggestions about the Science Festival. Also, a result of this research, it was determined that the attitudes of the participants towards science were high in a positive way, the participants found the organization productive and fun, and they stated that they could experiment, they wanted such organizations to continue by taking precautions during the pandemic process, suggested that more workshops be held at the next science festival.
Keywords : Science festival, science education, scientific attitude, Isparta