Abstract:

Problem Statement: In the literature, some studies related to students' attitudes towards science fairs were found (Karadeniz & Ata, 2013; Yıldırım & Şensoy, 2016). However, there was no study of the opinions of visitors to science fairs.   Purpose of the Study: The aim of this study is to investigate the opinions of visitors that attended TUBITAK science fairs for science fairs and their impact on students' attitudes toward physics in Turkey.   Method(s): The study is a quantitative research conducted by the scanning method. In the research, a scale was created to get the opinions of the visitors of the 4006-Science Fair sponsored by TUBITAK to their attitudes towards the fair and the effect of the fair on the attitudes of students towards physics. It was noted that the scale would be implemented shortly after visits to the science fair so that the number of items was small due to the time issue. For this reason, it was decided to create a scale of 10 items and a five-point Likert type. The scale was applied to 203 visitors who visited the fair. 70 of them are female, 133 of them are male.   Findings and Discussions: A descriptive analysis of the data on the "Opinions on Science Fair" factor obtained from the application of the scale was made. 79% of responses for this factor were collected in the "I fully agree" response. The averages of all items are above 4.20. Visitors want to attend such a fair again. Accordingly, the visitors are relatively less eager to support their child in joining the science fair. A descriptive analysis of the data on the "Opinions on the Effect of Science Fairs on Student Attitudes towards Physics Course" obtained from the application of the scale was made. 68% of the responses for this factor were collected in the "I fully agree" response. The average of all items, except one, is over 4.20. Visitors to the science fair think relatively less that students' concerns about physics lessons can be reduced by science fairs. It is examined whether there is a significant relationship between age range and education status information and responses given to the factors. According to the analyzes made, there is only a significant positive correlation between the "Opinions on the Effect of Science Fairs on Student Attitudes towards Physics Course" factor and the age group (r = 0.194, p = 0.006), considering the significance value of p < 0.05. No significant relationship was found between education status and factors.   Conclusions and Recommendations: The results of this research show that visitors of science fairs have a very positive opinion of science fairs. In one study, science fairs were determined to be motivational sources of interest, such as interest in science content, sense of self-efficacy, reward or success, social aspects of participants, and acquired learning strategies (Dionne, Reis, Trudel, Guillet, Kleine and Hancianu, 2012). Camcı (2008) has reached the conclusion that science fairs have contributed more to the interest of students in the nature and scientific process of science.

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