Abstract:

In the national project IT Academy – education for the 21st century realized in Slovakia, more than 60 activities were prepared for secondary school teachers and students. One of those activities is the activity “Water Cycle” which combines theoretical and practical knowledge in this area by using an inquiry-based cycle. The presented paper informs about experiences from 35 teachers who performed this activity by more than 600 students at K-7 education level. After the lesson, teachers answered a questionnaire about the learning and teaching process, time management, problematic areas, students´ perception and participation in the activity. All these answers were analyzed and evaluated. According to teachers’ answers, reading comprehension is one of the students´ weaknesses because students are impatient and inattentive. Teachers also agreed that students need to improve their practical skills by performing chemical experiments. Similarly, practical activity was appreciated by students for whom it was not only exciting but also educational.

Acknowledgement:
This article was created in the framework of the National project „IT Academy – Education for the 21st Century“, which is supported by the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund in the framework of the Operational Programme Human Resources, ITMS code of the project: 312011F057.

Keywords:

Water cycle, chemistry, secondary school students, teaching process.