ANALYZING SCIENCE ACTIVITIES IN FORCE AND MOTION CONCEPTS: A DESIGN OF AN IMMERSION UNIT

In this paper, we analyze the science activities offered at 7th grade in the Turkish science and technology curriculum along with addressing the curriculum’s original intent. We refer to several science education researchers’ ideas, including Chinn & Malhotra’s (Science Education, 86:175–218, 2002) theoretical framework and Edelson’s (1998) conceptualization of authentic science practices in our analyses. Our primary goal is to critique the science and technology curriculum and then offer alternative insights into learning science and doing science about force and motion concepts at 7th grade from epistemological and sociological perspectives. We introduce an Immersion Unit for teaching and learning the concepts of force and motion and discuss the elements of this immersion approach. Finally, we provide recommendations for designing and implementing similar immersion units for the science activities that are in practice.