HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES VERSUS WORKSHEETS IN REINFORCING PHYSICAL SCIENCE PRINCIPLES: EFFECTS ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTITUDE

A posttest-only control group experimental design with a counter-balanced replication was used to determine the effects on cognitive achievement (both immediate and delayed) and attitude toward the subject matter of a hands-on activity versus a worksheet in reinforcing physical science principles. The experimental results were stable across both replications, regardless of the subject matter (Oh m 's Law or incline plane) .For both the Ohm 's Law and the incline plane replications, there were no significant (p 1 . IO) differences in immediate or I I-day delayed cognitive achievement posttest scores between students participating in a hands-on reinforcement activity or a worksheet reinforcement activity .Thus, it was concluded that the two methods were equally eflective in reinforcing student subject matter learning .For both replications, students participating in the hands-on reinforcement activity had a significantly more positive (p 2.10) attitude toward the subject matter than did students in the worksheet group. It was concluded that hands-on activities were superior to worksheets in developing positive student attitudes toward academic subject matter.