Teaching the Experiments of the International Space Station by using the POE Strategy to Develop Secondary School Students' Attitudes towards Space Exploration and Their Scientific Explanations

Abstract

The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest international scientific project in history. It serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory. The purpose of the present study is to examine the effectiveness of teaching the experiments of the ISS by using the Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) strategy to develop secondary school students' attitudes towards space exploration and their scientific explanations. A quasi-experimental pretest/post-test experimental/control group design was utilized. The experimental group consisted of 38 grade 11 students, and the control group consisted of 37 students. A Likert-5 scale was created to measure attitudes towards space exploration. An open-ended scientific explanation instrument was prepared to measure students' ability to construct scientific explanations. A unit and a teacher's guide were prepared to help in teaching the ISS experiments by using the POE strategy. The data collection instruments were used as pre-tests before the implementation and as post-tests at the end of the implementation. Results indicated that using the POE strategy to teach the ISS experiments has a positive effect on learners' attitudes towards space exploration and their scientific explanations.