Plan Your Own Science Experiment: Elaborating Students Creativity and Problems in Science Laboratory Activity
Regina Lichteria Panjaitan, Atep Sujana, Asep Kurnia Jayadinata

Pendidikan Guru Sekolah Dasar, Kampus Sumedang, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jalan Mayor Abdurrahman 211, Sumedang 45322, Indonesia
regina[at]upi.edu

Abstract

In general, science class is usually accompanied by science laboratory activity. Conventionally, when students do their science laboratory activities, they follow science laboratory manuals where fixed steps of the activities are already provided. Alternatively, open-ended science laboratory manual can be implemented. In this study, the concept of Plan-your-own-science-experiment was applied. For this descriptive research, 65 primary-school teacher candidate students, which were divided into 8 groups, were asked to do an experiment about the effect of carbonated beverages on balloons with a simple open-ended laboratory manual. The guidelines only suggested the materials and apparatus required for the experiment, as well as a simple step to do the activity. The students were expected to broaden the possibility of the experiment with the same materials and apparatus recommended on the lab manual, and submit reports about their self-planned experiments. Afterwards, the students reports were elaborated for exploring students creativity emerged in the experiments they planned by themselves, and also scrutinizing the students problems in creating their own laboratory activity steps scientifically with an unstructured laboratory manual. The students creativity and problems found in their reports were discussed in this study. The results were supposed to provide science-teachers insights about positive sides and difficulties in applying Plan-your-own-science-experiment in science laboratory activity.

Keywords: plan your own experiment; open-ended laboratory manual; science laboratory activity

Topic: Integrated Science Education