J. Pijar MIPA, Vol. 16 No.5, November 2021: 569-575 ISSN 1907-1744 (Print) DOI: 10.29303/jpm.v16i5.1901 ISSN 2460-1500 (Online) 569 GENDER RESPONSE ON LABORATORY ACTIVITY BASED ON CREATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT ON BIOLOGY CREATIVE THINKING SKILLS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AA. Sukarso* 1 , Ari Widodo 2 , Diana Rochintaniawati 2 , and Widi Purwianingsih 2 1 Biology Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Traning and Education, University of Mataram, Mataram, Indonesia 2 Biology Education Department, Faculty of Mathematic and Science, Indonesia University of Education, Bandung, Indonesia *Email: asukarso@unram.ac.id Accepted: September, 27 2021. Approved: October, 02 2021. Published: November, 11 2021 Abstract. The study of creative thinking skills has focused on creative research project-based laboratory activity for high school students' biology learning. This study aims to explore the differences in the creative thinking ability of male and female students. The participants of this study were students of X MIPA consisting of 22 males and 37 female students in a high school of Mataram, Lombok, NTB. Students completed a biological creative thinking skills test after completing a laboratory learning activity based on a creative research project required to be encouraged by actions and creative thinking. The results showed evidence of an improvement trend of creative thinking skills in all male and female students. However, statistical analysis using an independent sample t-test showed no significant difference to the mean scores obtained by male and female students. Based on the existing literature on developmental trends and gender differences in creative thinking, the study results are discussed. Keywords: creativity, creative thinking, research project laboratory work, gender INTRODUCTION Enhancing students' creativity has been a focus and urgent need at this time. Students live at a time when a creative individual is highly valued and creativity becomes an ever-increasing to deal with a fast-changing world. Creativity is important for social and economic growth and thus can affect individual welfare [1]. Creativity is recognized as the root of providing innovative solutions providing for scientific progress and economic development. Therefore, creativity is students' future living pillar in the society of the 21 st century. Creativity becomes one of the core components of new abilities related to new ways of working. In other words, creativity is also an innovation. As something new, creativity can show quality and relevance to a particular work or context. Creativity is important both in life and the work environment because it describes a core aspect of human adaptability [2]. Experts agree that creativity affects society's performance. Therefore creativity needs to be developed [3,4]. If creativity is considered a necessity for a successful future life, then it is reasonable to expect creativity to become a priority in education. Education reforms such as the modification of the Curriculum of 2013 opens up the opportunity for students to learn and develop their creativity. Students' creativity can be developed without being limited by rules as long as the process and product of creativity can be accounted for academically. However, many societies consider that education places way too much emphasis on the domain of knowledge and lacks focus in an attempt to practice creativity to generate creative students. The learning process in school still involves a limited activity that requires creative thinking. Many schools suppress and even turn off creativity even though the school in the first place is responsible for building a system that supports the development of creativity rather than destroying the creativity itself [5], not to mention the curriculum, which often complicates the educational stakeholders to instill creativity into teaching activity [6]. That kind of learning system is responsible for students' low creativity in various places, including Indonesia. Based on the Global Creativity Index, Indonesian children were ranked 115 out of 139 countries involved in an International Survey in 2015 [7]. The result of the creative thinking skills study found that the ability is still at a low level [8-17]. Biological science must equip students to be creative. It provides a social climate that opens up opportunities for open exploration, enabling students to develop their creative potential. The material that suits this case is required to be close and related to real life. It allows students to explore the number of creations and innovations without losing the opportunity to understand the content in- depth. Biological science itself was born and shaped by creativity. Project-based learning is a modern teaching method that connects students’ experiences with school life. Experience is a crucial factor in acquiring knowledge. This study designed students to develop their creative thinking skills through several laboratory activities based on project research. The model of laboratory activity gives students a condition to plan and carry out the