The purpose of this research was to determined  the levels of the 8^th grade  students' knowledge of the  definition and characteristics of scientific knowledge and to search if the knowledge varies in students' school, education status of parents. In the studies (Sandoval, 2005) conducted  about the importance of scientific knowledge and about the reason why the students need to learn it, the following issues are mentioned: Human creativity  plays an important role and scientific ideas can change due to new researches and competing ideas. Being able to use scientific knowledge is significant for students in terms of making social and personal decisions. (Lederman, 2004). The distinguishing characteristic of scientific knowledge from other kinds of knowledge is that no inaccuracy has been found until now and it is not misleading for people. One of the distinct characteristics of scientific knowledge is that it is reviewed according to scientific measurement results not according to the judgement of people. (Başar, 2010) Scientific knowledge is classified as the knowledge which is gained as a result of academic studies with scientific methods and standards. (Güçlü & Sotirofski, 2006) Ohio State University United Science Training Center defined science as variable, accessible to everyone, renewable, probabilistic, humanistic,  unique,  historical, holistic and experimental. (Abd-El –Khalick &Lederman, 2000). For students to be able to create a rationalist ideas, to be scientifically literate, to have opinions about scientists and to use their scientific skills depend on internalization of basic knowledge of scientific knowledge. Students who gained these skills will be able to both use and product scientific knowledge for the following learning steps. Scientific knowledge aims to be universal. Many students and teachers, independent from the society and the culture, search for universal facts and rights. (Liang et al., 2009). It is revealed in the studies of Kılıç and others (2009) that the majority of the high school first graders do not have enough knowledge about the nature of scientific knowledge. It is also revealed in the study of Çelikdemir (2006) that the majority of students of primary education are not aware that the scientific theory and the scientific law are different kind of scientific knowledge. In order to enhance the understanding of scientific knowledge of students, it is important to focus on this issue from the first years of primary education. It is a significant problem to determine the students’ knowledge  about the definition and the characteristics of the scientific knowledge  in the primary education.For this reason in this study the following questions are studied: what is the knowledge level of 8^th grade students about the definition and characteristices of scientific knowledge?, Does this knowledge vary according to the students’ school  or their parents’  university graduation status?

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