IMPACT OF COMPUTER SIMULATION PACKAGE ON SCIENCE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA
The study determines the impact of computer simulation package on attitude of senior secondary school students in some science concepts. Abstract scientific concepts on pollution and energy were simulated and animated. Six hundred class two students randomly sampled from twelve co-educational secondary schools out of Two hundred and twenty (220) Government owned secondary schools in Ekiti State constituted the sample using multi-stage purposive and simple random sampling techniques. One validated instrument: Students’ Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) having twenty five items was administered to the respondents to generate data that answered the research questions and tested two hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Data collected were analysed using analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The finding shows that the developed computer simulation package has positive impact on students’ attitude towards the learning of science concepts (F-cal 1049.01 = P < 0.05), while school location showed no significant influence on both the experimental and control group (F-cal1.03 =P=0.312>0.05) at 0.05 level of significance. It was therefore recommended by the researchers that teachers of science subjects should be encouraged to develop and use simulation packages in the classroom and experts in simulation designs should train and retrain science teachers. Curriculum planners should incorporate package designs and usage in the school curriculum.
Impact, Computer Simulation, Students’ Attitude, Science Concepts.