International Refereed Journal of Engineering and Science (IRJES) ISSN (Online) 2319-183X, (Print) 2319-1821 Volume 6, Issue 6 (June 2017), PP.22-27 www.irjes.com 22 | Page Experimentation in science, engineering, and education Jürgen Paul 1 , Jorge Groß 1 1 (Department of Science Education, University of Bamberg, Germany) Abstract: Experimentation is used differently in science, engineering, and science education. The aim of many science fairs is to encourage young talent in scientific inquiry. Based on 57 interviews with participants of a German youth science fair, this article points out typical students’ conceptions about the procedure and the purpose of experimentation. The analysis of the interview data revealed that the derived concepts firstly depend on each other and secondly reflect the differences in the way of thinking and working between scientists and engineers. Since experiences with experimentation provide the basis for learning and thus for the conceptual knowledge about science, we conclude that it is essential, for science education, to distinguish the engineer’s and the scientist’s point of view and to implement more authentic inquiry in science lessons at school. Keywords: conceptual change, experiments, inquiry-based learning, science education I. INTRODUCTION Experimentation is crucial for engineering, natural and computer science, as well as for science education. The aim of this article is to draw attention to the difference in understanding experimentation within these fields and to point out the difficulties for science education generated by that difference. Engineering and science complement and inspire each other. Research in natural science provides the scientific basis for implementing technical ideas, for inventing new technologies, for thinking and working as an engineer. Specific technical applications and more precise devices enable scientists to measure, capture, and understand nature more and more profoundly. In a sense, engineering and science thus form a symbiosis. As a consequence of this merging, a problem of teaching experimentation as one of the most important scientific inquiry methods occurs [1]. We therefore assumed that students have problems to distinguish experimentation between engineering and science in terms of procedure and purpose. Scientific experimentation is defined as an orderly procedure carried out with the goal of testing a hypothesis by systematically manipulating the conditions of the observed processes or variables to be measured [2, 3]. This scientific procedure generally, but not necessarily, contains the following steps: (1) formulating a research question, (2) generating a theory-based hypothesis, (3) designing the experiment, (4) conducting the experiment and collecting data, (5) preparing and evaluating the data, (6) interpretation and discussion of the results and their conclusions, and (7) communication of findings. Of course, we do not claim that this sequence is the one and only scientific method. However, there is a broad consensus nationally and internationally within the science education community on the need to convey such a basic understanding of scientific thinking and working [4, 5]. At school, experiments function in a variety of ways such as motivating students, testing hypotheses, or illustrating concepts [6]. Here, the teacher generally knows the outcome of the experiment, whereas the result of a research experiment is unknown. However, the key element in classroom instruction is whether the teacher has communicated to students what the expected result should be. We therefore distinguish the typical “school experiment” with explicit instructions and known results from the “research experiment”, which is pa rt of the scientific process described above. A scientist asks a question to nature and works to get an answer to this question. Based on a theory, the scientist’s aim is to test a hypothesis. Whereas for scientists, the purpose of experimentation is knowledge gain (“open-ended”), engineers usually carry out experiments for technical improvements (“intended”). To fulfil the requirements of a task, engineers want to achieve a specific effect. Since they have different goals, scientists and engineers may additionally use different procedures for experimentation. During everyday life, most people think and act more like an engineer than a scientist, because they daily use things, especially technical devices as a result of social and technological change, as a means to an end and thus want to achieve a certain effect, too. Experimentation is also the core element of many science fairs. In order to retrace scientific inquiry, students can compete with each other by presenting their own small research projects. In many countries, science fairs have a long tradition to expand normal classroom teaching [7]. On the one hand, to support and challenge students individually, and on the other hand, to enhance lessons and also to build the external profile of the school. Researchers have investigated various aspects of science competitions in the context of science education. Some of them focused on different factors that lead to successful participation [8]. Gender effects