A Case Study of the Effect of the Scientific Inquiry Process after “Observations and Experiments Implementation” at a Designated Super Science High School on Students’ Interest in Observations and Experiments

Abstract

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has implemented and continues to work on the SSH (Super Science High school) project for the purpose of “cultivating human resources for science and technology”. At SSH designated schools, students cultivate interest in observations and experiments through scientific inquiry activities. In this study, we will target both the SSH main target classes, which have many scientific exploration activities at SSH designated schools, and the students who are not in the SSH main target classes, which have fewer such exploratory activities in science. The effect of the exploration process on students’ interest in scientific observations and experiments was examined in a case study. The results revealed that in the scientific inquiry process after “Implementation of observations and experiments”, students’ interest in observation and experimentation may be transformed into a deeper interest regardless of the inquiry elements of the course and students’ effort. These results suggest that it is possible to foster a deep interest in observation and experimentation among students even if the learning process has few exploratory elements after “implementation of observations and experiments”.