Section Days abstract book 2010.indd - RUB Research School ...

NSE_07
KEMIEPLUS – A CHEMISTRY PROJECT FOR
CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS WITH EMPHASIS
ON SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
Helma Kleinhorst and Katrin Sommer
Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Didactics of Chemistry
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
email: helma.kleinhorst@rub.de
KEMIE, which is the German acronym for “Children experience chemistry with their
parents”, is a project for children from the third to the fifth grade and their parents. During a
period of nine months the participants research and carry out experiments at the Alfried
Krupp-Schülerlabor of the Ruhr-University.
A central guideline of the project KEMIE and the subsequent advanced project KEMIEplus is
the engagement with scientific inquiry, especially scientific methods of thinking and operation
[1]. The reason for focusing on this guideline are several studies which indicate that children
have difficulties with implementing the experimental method [2, 3].
That is why the project KEMIE is concerned with analyzing parts of the experimental
method: The aim is to examine to what extent children’s and parents’ knowledge regarding the
processes of generating, testing and evaluating hypotheses develops by participating in the
project. Therefore, we apply an already existing test about the logic of experimentation [4, 5]
in a slightly modified version: instead of conducting interviews the test is converted into a
questionnaire. Thus, the study includes all of the overall 96 children and their parents.
References:
[1] Sommer, K.; Russek, A.; Kleinhorst, H.: KEMIE – Kinder erleben mit ihren Eltern Chemie. Didaktische
Konzeption und Umsetzung eines langfristig angelegten Eltern-Kind-Projektes. In: Chemkon (im Druck).
[2] Hammann, M.: Kompetenzentwicklungsmodelle. In: MNU 57 (2004) 4, S. 196-203.
[3] de Jong, T.; van Joolingen, W. R.: Scientific Discovery Learning with Computer Simulations of Conceptual
Domains. In: Review of Educational Research 68 (1998) 2, S. 179-201.
[4] Bullock, M.; Ziegler, A.: Scientific reasoning: Developmental and individual differences. In: Weinert, F.E.;
Schneider, W. (Hrsg.): Individual development from 3 to 12. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999,
S. 38-54.
[5] Grygier, P.: Wissenschaftsverständnis von Grundschülern im Sachunterricht. Verlag Julius Klinkhardt, Bad
Heilbrunn 2008.