MULTILATERAL COMENIUS PROJECT A STATISTIC AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

MULTILATERAL COMENIUS PROJECT A STATISTIC AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON BIODIVERSITY 2013 -2015 REPORT SURVEY – STUDENTS MOTIVATION IN STUDYING SCIENCES DECEMBER 2013 – MAY 2014

Participants: STUDENTS AND TEACHERS FROM: I. E. S. Manuel de Falla, Puerto Real, Spain H. O. V. Alemdag Tunc Capa Anadolu Lisesi, Istanbul, Turkey Instituto D’Istruzione Superiore “Sandro Pertini”, Camposampierro, Italy Valkas gimnazija, Valka, Latvia Colegiul Energetic, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania The survey has 10 questions and 6 pages.

GOALS Our survey's goals are: - To show students attitudes towards Mathematics; - To show students attitudes towards Biodiversity, conservation and environment; - To study the motivation of students in studying and understanding sciences. The survey takes an average of 25 minutes to complete.

297 students completed the survey! An average of 59, 4 students from each country (Spain, Latvia, Italy, Turkey, Romania) completed the survey. Over 50% of the students are between 16 and 17. The survey was completed by 53, 2% (158) girls and 46, 8% (139) boys.

Students’ attitude towards MATHEMATICS: Students’ attitude towards Mathematics can be improved. Even if most of the students agree that Maths helps develop the mind and that it is one of the most important subject, still, 59 (21, 69 %) agree that they feel a sense of insecurity when attempting Mathematics. All the activities that include Mathematics are welcome and needed in order to: - to raise the confidence of the students when it comes to this subject; - to increase their motivation and interest in studying Maths.

Students’ attitude towards BIODIVERSITY: Students are interested in collecting biodiversity data, conservation, environment, spending time in nature, participating in activity related with Biodiversity. But, a big number of students, 75 (28, 09 %) are neutral in saying that Biology and Geography are favourite subjects. 63 (23, 68%) don’t like reading and studying about biodiversity and conservation – which means that we need to “educate” more the taste for science.

Subjects’s RATES: Most of the students accorded on the scale from 1 to 5 the following grades: GEOGRAPHY – 3 BIOLOGY – 3 -4 MATHEMATICS – 4 CHEMISTRY – 3 PHYSICS – 3 ENGLISH – 5 ICT/TECHNOLOGIES – 5 (We should add PROJECTS) We conclude, that we can “use” popular subjects like English and ICT in order to increase the popularity of the other sciences (subjects).

Brainstorming about THE SCIENCES Top 3: Biology/ Chemistry/ Physics Laboratory/ Chemical reactions Research/ Innovation/ Discovery

Brainstorming about SCIENTISTS Top 3: Biologists/ Chemists/ Physicians Darwin/ Einstein/ Newton/ Another scientist Highly educated/ Clever/ Intelligent

How informed are our students? Where have they heard or read about sciences? Top 3: TV programs Internet websites Films Our students watch TV and navigate on the Internet. Just a small number of students answered that they heard about sciences from magazines, books or museums.

The most appreciated statements about science are: “Science is such a big part of our lives that we should all take an interest. ” “I am amazed by the achievement of science. ”

This study was realized with the help of students and teachers from: I. E. S. Manuel de Falla, Puerto Real, Spain H. O. V. Alemdag Tunc Capa Anadolu Lisesi, Istanbul, Turkey Instituto D’Istruzione Superiore “Sandro Pertini”, Camposampierro, Italy Valkas gimnazija, Valka, Latvia Colegiul Energetic, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania Our survey and the final report were realized with the help of: http: //kwiksurveys. com/

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any information presented here.