Effect of utilizing home – related science activities on students’ performance in basic science concepts

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the relative effect of home related science activities on students’ performance on the concepts of heat energy, ecology and mixtures present. Pretest posttest control group design was adopted for the study. The sample consisted of 240 junior secondary two (JSII) students drawn from a population of 2,560 students from Yenagoa and Ogbia Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State. An instrument, Basic Science Achievement Test (BSAT) was used for data collection. Also, lesson packages for each content area were developed for both the control and experimental groups. Data analysis was by use of mean scores, standard deviation, bar charts, t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The result showed that there exist differences in students’ performance on the concepts with the hierarchical order from highest to lowest as energy, ecology and mixtures. It was recommended that teachers should search deeply into the culture of pupils to identify and establish more links between their daily experiences and classroom science activities for those concepts which the performance were not very impressive.

Key words: home – related science activities, students’ performance, basic science concepts