A study on evaluation of the biology projects submitted to the TUBITAK secondary education research projects contest from the Bursa Region

Abstract

This study evaluates, through the employment of scientific methods and techniques, a total of 107 Biology projects submitted by secondary education students to the Bursa Region Coordinatorship of TUBITAK (a region which encompasses the municipalities of Afyonkarahisar, Balikesir, Bilecik, Canakkale, Eskisehir, Kutahya, and Yalova). The projects were submitted to research project contests held between the years of 2009 and 2012. The projects were assessed in terms of which subjects they focused on, and the following criteria were employed in their evaluation: originality, creativity, consistency, contribution, utility, applicability, usefulness, clarity of results, and the selection and the use of technical instruments and apparatuses. Some suggestions have been put forward so as to solve the most common problems in projects such as originality, creativity and applying scientific method. In addition, the theoretical and technical methods used in the evaluation and the selection of the projects were elaborated upon and, as an additional step, the suitability of the measurements and the evaluative operations employed within the evaluative process was discussed.