This study aimed to investigate the effects of the applications conducted in the science center within the scope of the science lesson "Solar System and Beyond" unit of the 7th-grade students in the secondary school, on the perceptions of the students about the out-of-school learning environments (OSLEs). In the quantitative part of the…

Many museums attempt to connect museum activities to classroom learning goals by creating "before" and "after" suggestions for the classroom teacher. Therefore, when doing out of school activities it is common to organize and plan such activities from a before, during and after perspective. The present study primarily rests on…

This study aims to determine the effect of using out-of-school learning environments in science teaching on motivation for learning science. It is a quasi-experimental study and it has been designed as pre- and posttest experimental study. The study was carried out with seventh grade students enrolled in a secondary school in the city centre of a…

This study aims to evaluate middle school students' views about science centers as out-of-school learning environments. The study surveyed 195 5th-, 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade students attending Hatice Salih Primary School and Ahmet Cabuk Middle School in Province Bursa. It used a qualitative cross-sectional and longitudinal research design. For…

Concepts relating to outer space are difficult to grasp because we lack direct experience of this environment. We analysed students' understanding of gravitation on Earth and beyond by testing the effect of training on it. In a pretest (T1), 28 seventh graders answered a questionnaire about space concepts. They all then underwent the same formal…

This paper examines the knowledge construction processes involved when grades 7 and 8 South African students learnt about the concept of gravity while visiting an astronomy-related science centre. The literature on students' understanding of gravity identifies a number of alternative conceptions prevalent, several of which are mirrored in this…

This study describes how a group of grade 7 and 8 students in South Africa engaged with the notion of spatial scale in the Universe before, during and after a visit to an astronomy science centre. A limited amount of research has been conducted on this concept worldwide. Using a combination of concept maps, observations and interviews, results…