Abstract

Some of the main goals of science education are to increase students’ knowledge about the technology and engineering design process, and to train students as scientifically and technologically literate individuals. The main purpose of this study is to find out primary students’ views about science, technology and engineering. For this aim and in order to increase students’ knowledge and understanding of science, technology and engineering, a module named “Engineering and Technology Lessons for Children” developed by the Museum of Science was applied to 88 students who were in 4, 5 and 6th grades. The science topic was ‘balance and forces’, and the engineering field was ‘civil engineering’. The module took five days and consisted of interactive teaching techniques such as experiments, science trips, observations, creative drama and designing. Out of these 88, 23 students took part in interviews to find out their views about science, technology, and engineering in detail. The students were attending a comprehensive primary school in an urban district of Izmir, which is the third biggest city in Turkey. Specifically, this school was chosen since it was a sister school to the university which means the university and the school had an agreement on benefiting from each other’s competences and facilities. Since the school was a sister school it was a convenience sample and this was the main reason for choosing these students. This study is a case study survey type of research and is also a simple descriptive design. As an instrument, a semi-structured interview was used. According to the results of the analysis of the data, after implementing the module, students’ awareness in terms of science, technology and engineering increased.

Key words: Engineering design process, understanding of science, understanding of technology, understanding of engineering.