High school students’ performances in assessing scientific research in the context of dairy industry

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the performance of 8th, 9th and 10th grade students (14, 15 and 16 years old respectively), attending Physics and Chemistry lessons, when assessing the design of scientific research on a precipitation problem identified in the dairy industry. Students’ performances are examined separately for each dimension involved in the design: identifying the issue to be studied, posing the hypotheses, planning the research and selecting the ending criterion. For the analysis, we collect participants’ individual proposals, which have to include the following tasks: selecting the best option, justifying their choice and modifying the alternative option so that it will be correct. The less adequate results correspond to the last two dimensions.