The Development and Application of Program for Scientific Experimental Design Knowledge Generation in Elementary School

The purpose of this study is to develop a program for elementary school students` scientific experimental design knowledge generation. This study also investigated the effects of their experimental design ability, as well as the change in the type and elaborateness of their experimental design by applying the program. The subjects of this study was 4 classes in 6th grade of an elementary school located in Seoul, KOREA. The classes were divided into experimental and comparative groups. While the treatment was applied to the experimental group, the comparative group was taught using conventional methods. The pre-test and post-test for students` capability of building scientific experimental design knowledge were conducted to compare the ability of experimental design, the change in the type and elaborateness of experimental design. The findings in this study are as follows: First, the program appeared to be effective in improving experimental design ability. Furthermore, the program appeared to be more effective in generating a higher level of the experimental design type and elaborateness. Therefore, in order to improve experimental design knowledge generation ability, the program can be utilized as effective learning model in elementary school.