Technology interest of secondary school students at five testing points over one complete school year after participating at a student-centered learning program about bionics

Abstract

Technology affects our daily lives, although many people do not have any specific knowledge or interest in it. In the learning module fundamentals of technology and biology in different examples of bionics were combined. 324 students took part in a student-centered intervention in a zoo with an affiliated exhibition about bionics. Students were monitored in the interest of technology and its social aspects two weeks before (T0), directly after (T1) and six weeks (T2) after our research-centered learning program with the revised technology questionnaire (Marth & Bogner, 2018). A sub-sample of 191 students have filled questionnaire at two more testing points at twelve weeks (T3) and one year (T4) after participation. Interest reached its peak immediately after the program and dropped again after six weeks and unfortunately fell back to the level before the intervention. The social aspects sub-scale also showed a peak directly after participation as well as a drop six weeks later. In contrast with the interest sub-scale, the social-sub-scale remained constant at the level after six weeks and even after one year was still higher than before the intervention. The previous interest was shown to be dependent on the scores for knowledge acquisition prior to participation.