The Initial Exploration Of Conducting Inquiry Biological Experiments In Science And Technology Museums

Nowadays, under the circumstances that the requirements of the improvement of the quality of science and culture are urgent, the Science and Technology Museum careers are flourishing, the Science and Technology Museum Education is in desperate need of fresh vitality, it is a wise choice to develop inquiry-learning activities. By perusing some related materials, this thesis tries to sort out a summary of relevant theories about inquiry-learning. These mainly include the application status of inquiry-learning theory in formal education abroad or in domestic; the necessity, the feasibility and the existing problems of conducting inquiry-based experiments in science and technology museums; the levels of inquiry-learning; the cognitive psychology basement of inquiry-learning, aiming to deepen the understanding of inquiry and act as the theoretical support of the activity to be designed.Based on all these significant theories, the dissertation managed to complete a preliminary study of the whole process of an inquiry-based experiment activity, including prophase investigation, activity design, and evaluation frame design, the implement of activity, data collection, and final summative effect evaluation. Besides, some useful theories or skills were integrated and tried in the activity designed here. For instance, focus group interview was used to learn the current knowledge level and inquiry ability of the target audience and to get some feedback from them about the activity plan; a quiz game and result presentation were added to attract and motivate those learners; observation method,worksheets and questionnaires were all used to collect data; the learners themselves, their team members and the instructors were all main characters to evaluate the performance of the learners; an evaluation index framework were designed for this inquiry-learning activity and so on. In order to test whether the effectiveness of the designed activity have reach the preset target, an analysis result of the data collected was given in chapter 3. Based on the analysis, the study also summarized a detailed effectiveness evaluation report and concluded the existing problems and the possible improvement.While biological subjects are relatively less likely to be displayed in Science and Technology Museums, the study creatively choose biology as its experiment theme. This is not only because biology is a subject based on experiment but also for a good wish to make up the imbalance among the different subjects displayed in Science and Technology Museum Education System. Through the attempts and practices, this thesis proposes an suggestion that biological theme is appropriate for inquiry-learning experiment, but the activity had better be carried out in a way which combine the resources and advantages of both school and science museum.