Abstract:

The scientific rules and laws of the natural world are very complex, wherein partial knowledge is not enough to comprehend the complications of the real world. Interdisciplinary learning is the best way to understand and perceive natural phenomena in the real world in science because scientific literacy is a central component of education. It is a great approach to teach 21st century skills with curriculum integration while also maintaining and improving academic performance. Even in this era of technological advancement and 21st century skills, we can see that most schools in Pakistan still follow traditional teaching patterns and learning practices. When students do not succeed in grasping subject matters, they lose interest in their studies, and either start to rote learning or lose interest and motivation, which results in poor academic achievement. The gap between curricula demands a high level of cognition to understand the concepts, but all science disciplines are taught independently, therefore students fail to understand the natural phenomena, which are an intersection of all science subjects.
The goal of this research is to introduce Integrated Science to Pakistani middle school students through a digital interactive book so that when they enter high school, they can easily understand the connection between subjects and the core understanding of concepts — ¬¬be prepared to solve the challenges of the 21st century. This study integrates the science disciplines, mainly Physics, with Biology and Chemistry. This knowledge integration is more relevant to the context and close to real-world phenomena which facilitate higher-order thinking. Since they are difficult, abstract nature subjects, the Interactive Digital Book was used in research to teach students — as interactive digital content provides multiple modes of information (interactive pictures, animations, audio, videos, text to speech, 3D objects and interactive quizzes, etc.) to cater for inclusivity, and it also allows students to study within traditional or blended teaching and learning environments anywhere, anytime. The development and design process of the digital interactive Integrated Science Book is guided by a combined application of ADDIE and Kemp design models; the reason for combining these models is to fill the gaps in the ADDIE model, such as continuous evaluation to ensure effective learning.
This research investigates the students' conceptual understanding and overall motivation and engagement. The participants of this study were 7th Grade students (boys and girls). A quasi-experimental one-group pre- and post-test design was used to achieve this goal. The pre-test and post-test are the same for a more accurate comparison of conceptual understanding measurement to assess students' conceptual understanding. Paired sample t-test was used to compare the means of the pre- and post-test. Results of the pre- and post-tests disclosed that the mean of post-test was higher than pre-test. Hence, a significant difference in the scores of pre-test and post-test was observed which shows that teaching Integrated Science via Interactive Digital Book has led to significant improvement in the conceptual understanding of students. An observation checklist was used throughout the sessions to evaluate the students' behavioural, cognitive, and affective levels.
This research strives to contribute towards preparing students for the 21st century and will also help meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.

Keywords:

Integrated Science, Digital Interactive Book, 21st Century Skills, Middle School, Conceptual Understanding