INTEGRATED SCIENCE (IS) FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL VIA INTERACTIVE DIGITAL BOOK

Abstract

The scientific rules and laws of the natural world are very complex, wherein partial knowledge is not enough to comprehend the complications of the real world. Scientific literacy is a key component of education, interdisciplinary learning is the greatest way to comprehend and observe natural occurrences in the real world in science. It is a great approach to teach 21st century skills with curriculum integration while also maintaining and improving academic performance. The gap between curricula demands a high level of cognition to understand the concepts, but all science disciplines are taught independently, therefore students fail to understand the natural phenomena, which are an intersection of all science subjects. The goal of this research is to introduce Integrated Science to Pakistani middle school students through a digital interactive book so that when they enter high school, they can easily understand the connection between subjects and the core understanding of concepts — be prepared to meet the 21st century challenges. This study integrates the science disciplines, mainly Physics, with Biology and Chemistry. This knowledge integration is more relevant to the context and close to real-world phenomena which facilitate higher-order thinking. Since they are difficult, abstract nature subjects, the Interactive Digital Book was used in research to teach students — as interactive digital content provides multiple modes of information (interactive pictures, animations, audio, videos, text to speech, 3D objects and interactive quizzes, etc.) to cater for inclusivity, and it also allows students to study within traditional or blended teaching and learning environments anywhere, anytime. The development and design process of the digital interactive Integrated Science Book is guided by a combined application of ADDIE and Kemp design models; the reason for combining these models is to fill the gaps in the ADDIE model, such as continuous evaluation to ensure effective learning. This research investigates the students' conceptual understanding and overall motivation and engagement. This study's participants were 7th grade students (boys and girls). A quasi-experimental one-group pre- and post-test design was used to achieve this goal. The pre-test and post-test are the same for a more accurate comparison of conceptual understanding measurement to assess students' conceptual understanding. To compare the means of the pre- and post-tests, a paired sample t-test was used. The pre- and post-test results disclosed that the post-mean test's was greater than the pre- test's. Hence, a significant difference in the scores of pre-test and post-test was observed which shows that teaching Integrated Science via Interactive Digital Book has led to considerable improvement in students' conceptual knowledge. An observation checklist was used throughout the sessions to evaluate the students' behavioural, cognitive, and affective levels. This research strives to contribute towards preparing students for the 21st century and will also help meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.