EFFECTS OF OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES AND GENDER ON STUDENTS’ ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE IN BIOLOGY

Abstract

The research work was embarked upon with the purpose of finding out the effect of outdoor activities and gender on secondary school students’ environmental knowledge .The study was carried out on 240 senior secondary school II students from four schools in two local government areas of Ibadan in Oyo State using a pre-test, post-test control group, quasi experimental design.

                The purposive sampling technique was used to assign the schools to experimental and control groups for the study. Two out of the four schools were assigned as experimental group and two as control group. Intact classes were used.

                The instruments used comprises Students’ Test of Environmental Concept Knowledge in Biology (STECKB) with KR-21 of 0.8, instructional guide for teaching with outdoor activities, instructional guide for teaching with conventional method, evaluation sheet for assessing the teachers.

                Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Analysis of Covariance - ANCOVA).

                The main effect of gender on students environmental knowledge was significant (F=4.482 P<05).

The result of this study has shown the need for curriculum planners to include outdoor activity as one of the methods required in the curriculum, especially the student/teacher activities to bring about effective impartation of knowledge.

It also established the fact that gender had a great impact in the learning of science since the males have proved to be more predisposed to learning than the female.