As in all learning areas, the critical role that attitude play on learning science is now known by educators. Many factors such as past experiences and learning environment may affect students' attitudes. Papanastasiou (2002) stated that providing an effective teaching environment increases students' attitudes towards science. Additionally, Adesoji (2008) emphasizes that the teaching methods used are effective in students' attitudes towards science lessons. That is, it can be said that there is a direct relationship between the teaching methods and approaches used by teachers in lessons and students' attitudes towards science (Mıhladız & Duran, 2010).

Considering the general characteristics of the project-based learning method, it can be thought that it is a suitable method to gain a positive attitude, even, to transform negative attitudes into positive ones. Project-based learning (PBL) is a learning approach in which students try to solve the problems they may encounter in their lives by connecting with different disciplines and by using a scenario in the classroom environment (Korkmaz & Kaptan, 2001). In this method, the student is active inside and outside the classroom, discovers and uses knowledge. Additionally, this method is related to daily life and allows the use of scientific methods. Thus, it provides students with positive experiences. Several studies (i.e., Seloni, 2005; Faris, 2008; İmer, 2008; Keser, 2008) examined the effectiveness of PBL on attitudes towards science, and they revealed a positive effect.

In addition to PBL, the use of the history of science (HOS) in science education (Matthews, 1994), more specifically use of the carefully prepared, pedagogical and historical science stories (Solbes & Traver, 2003) play an important role in developing students' interest and positive attitudes towards science. Matthews (1994) defines HOS stories as a tool that provides a bridge between science and school science and stated that the use of stories about the lives of scientists in the lessons contributes to the concretization of science by students On the other hand, Abd-El-Khalick and Lederman (2000) emphasize that if the HOS is used as a context in order to attract students' attention and positively affect their attitudes towards science, it is necessary to draw attention to historical part of the experiments that are assumed to be the cornerstone of science.  

Therefore, it is thought that enriching PBL with historical stories including information about scientists’ lives and important experiments in history can be a good way to improve students’ science related attitudes. However, there was no empirical study using PBL and HOS together in the related accessible literature. On the other side, determining the attitudes in the learning process is useful in terms of predicting the future behavior of the learner by determining the attitudes of the learner in a certain time period and changing their attitudes. Therefore, it is thought that exploring students’ experiences towards their science related attitudes during PBL-HOS instruction would enable to give clues about the impact of activities on target outcomes. For this reason, this study intends to explore how students' science related attitudes are when these two strategies (i.e.,PBL and HOS) are used together.

To sum up, the purpose of this study was to understand science related attitudes of middle school students who experienced a PBL enriched with HOS activities. Therefore, this study try to obtain detailed understanding of students’ science related attitudes, and focus on a description of students’ science related attitudes in such a learning environment. In line with this purpose, the research question was identified as “How are the science related attitudes of seventh grade students who took a PBL-HOS instruction?”

The design of this research was determined as qualitative case study. The participants of this study was chosen in two phases: First, at the beginning of PBL-HOS instruction, Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) (Fraser, 1978) was administered to all students who participated in the study. Then, z- scores were computed for each subscale of TOSRA, and based on these scores, three distinct groups were created as low, medium, and high level. At the end of the instruction, two students from each group were purposefully sampled. Accordingly, a total of 6 students (2 girls and 4 boys) were selected as participants of the study. The students were exposed to PBL and HOS activities prepared based on the national science curriculum (MoNE, 2018) and tested before. During the implementation, the students worked on a science project that had a big question: how the fastest, safest and least costly roller coaster can be designed. The students also engaged in activities including historical science stories. After the instruction, participants were interviewed individually. The semi-structured interview questions were developed based on several studies which focus on students’ attitude towards science (i.e., Fraser, 1978; Hall, 2015; Sharkawy, 2016). More specifically, the questions were prepared under five dimensions namely, adoption of scientific attitudes, attitude toward scientific inquiry, career interest in science, normality of scientists, and enjoyment of science lessons. Expert opinion about appropriateness of the questions was obtained, and a pilot interview was conducted with a seventh grade student. After necessary revisions, the interviews were carried out, and audio recorded, and took approximately 30 minutes for each student. The data obtained were analyzed by using thematic analysis. After coding process, sub-themes and themes were created. Suggestions of a disinterested peer were taken to ensure the trustworthiness of the study. After three months from this process, the data were read again, and the themes, sub-themes and the codes were reviewed, and tabled. The tables were reviewed by an expert. After necessary revisions, final form of the tables were established. The findings were interpreted under each theme, and quotations from responses were used to illustrate the related codes.

In terms of students’ adoption of scientific attitudes, it was found that some find science as wondering or difficult; some find scientists and their work as exciting, motivating, and enviable. In PBL-HOS instruction, students like science more, their interest towards science and scientists increases. Students enjoy exploring-learning by doing experiment, learning new things-ideas, and creating new things-ideas. Regarding students’ attitude toward scientific experimentation and inquiry, results showed that their perceptions on experiments and perceptions on their level of knowledge and skills necessary for doing experiments were formed their attitude. More specifically, in PBL-HOS instruction, students do experiments out of school due to the increase in their personal interest, curiosity,and confidence. They also mentioned benefits of doing experiments in classes. In PBL-HOS instruction, students were found to feel more confident, develop their measurement skills and thinking skills. Concerning students’ interest in pursuing a career in science or science-related work it was revealed that, in PBL-HOS instruction, students are interested in being scientists because they enjoy doing experiment and making research. Some plan to choose a profession related to science because they like science, and making research. Regarding students’ beliefs about life of scientists, results showed that students do not have any negative stereotypes about working conditions, family-social relationships, and personal characteristics of scientists. Concerning the extent to which students enjoy with their science lessons, it was found that students have positive feelings during PBL-HOS instruction. They enjoy the lessons because they found them as interesting, fun and exciting; they like teaching style and content of the lessons, even they have favorite activities such as doing experiments. Consequently, the students enjoy the PBL-HOS instruction. After the instruction, they generally have positive attitudes towards scientists’ desirable characteristics, scientific experimentation and inquiry, science and science related works, and life of scientists, and science lessons.

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