Children's Science Curiosity Scale (CSCS)

Measures elementary school children's attitudes towards science in a learning context.

Average Review: 3 (3.7)

Supplemental Information:

n/a

Assessment Type:

30 5-point Likert scale items

Scale:

5-point Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree, strongly disagree)

Publication Date:

Nov 07, 2008

Respondent:

Initial study: 5th grade students

Domain(s) Evaluated:

Engagement, Attitude / Behavior

Sample items:

Please read the following statements and circle the choice that most truthfully tells how you feel about the statement.

1.Science magazines and stories are interesting.
2. I would like to know what causes wind.

Reliability:

Cronbach's alpha 0.830

Validity:

Concurrent validity: 0.64 Construct validity: 0.77 For criticism of validity see: Gardner, P.L. (1987). Comments on "Toward the Development of a Children's Science Curiosity Scale," Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 24(2), 175-176.

Frequency:

Frequently

Administration time:

15 minutes

Requires a Computer:

No

Requires Internet Access:

No

Primary reference:

Harty, H. & Beall, D. (1984). Toward the development of a children's science curiosity measure. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 21(4), 425-436.

Comments:



A thesis written using CSCS:
Brown, A. (2013). Using Field Studies To Meet The Next Generation Science Standards. Masters Theses. 1151.

Other Reference:
Lin Ting, K. & Siew, N. M. (2014). Effects of outdoor school ground lessons on students' science process skills and scientific curiosity. Journal of Education and Learning, 3(4) 96-107.

The study used the CSCS scale to assess the effects of outdoor school ground lessons of year five students science process skills and scientific curiosity with 119 participants. An adapted version of CSCS was used composed of 30 items. The reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha and was satisfactory at 0.830 suggesting reliability of the shortened measure.

STEM Criteria

Science

Yes

Technology

No

Engineering

No

Math

No