ABSTRACT
This phenomenological study aimed to explore the effect of the availability and utilization of science laboratory for the students’ learning in science. To gather more insights on the study a quantitative descriptive research method was deploy using survey-questionnaires as main instruments. The questionnaire has three parts; first, the respondents’ profile in terms of their age, sex and civil status; second, identifying the facilities available in the science laboratory and utilized supporting instructions and determining the support instructional materials used in science; and third, establish the impact of students’ attentiveness in learning science. A five-point Likert scale was utilized to answer the survey-questionnaire. A total of sixty-seven (67) Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graders from RPMD National High School who were officially enrolled during the school year 2023-2024 was the student-respondents. The data collected was systematically arranged and tabulated using statistical tools such are Weighted Mean and Frequency and Percentage and Standard Deviation. On the demographic profile of the respondents, the results of findings revealed that 71.64% were females while 28.26% males. This implied that female respondents were predominant over male. Moreover, 49.25 % from the respondents aged 18 to 19 years old. This connotes that students were on standard school-age brackets were grades 9 to 12 ages from 14 to 18 years old although it was observed that some students were late starting schooling and returned to a school after stopping or dropped resulted to at least 13.44% from respondents aged 20 years old and above. Moreover, the results further revealed that availability of science laboratory equipment’s weighted mean is 2.82, was assessed “sometimes”, students’ attentiveness in science laboratory activities average weighted mean is 3.14, appraised to “neither agree or disagree”, while average weighted mean on Students’ Attentiveness on Science Support Instructions is 3.65, considered “agree” by the respondents. The overall results implied that the insufficiency of science laboratory equipment brought adverse effects to students’ attentiveness in science. The students' expectations on science laboratory activities sometimes were not realized due to scarcity of facilities and equipment and insufficiency hampers the completion of the science lesson. Nevertheless, the respondents dealt with the problem through the preparation of support instructions materials.
Keywords: Availability, Utilization, Science Laboratory Equipment, Students’ Attentiveness
INTRODUCTION
It is undeniably that science plays a significant role in everyone’s life especially on day-to-day life. From the beginning, when a child starts to attend his schooling he will be taught how to write and read and relate to the environment he had seen in and outside. It has been an open information that the educational institutions have a lot of flaws, starting from the textbooks which are overfilled with materials that often very complicated and can be hard for students to comprehend, it is also the lack of science laboratory’s equipment. Laboratory equipment is necessary for the students to bridge the gap because teaching science cannot be done beyond memorization, the quality of learning experience depends on the extent of the adequacy of laboratory facilities and the teacher’s effectiveness in the use of laboratory equipment with the aim of facilitating and providing meaningful learning experiences in the students.
According to USA Lab Equipment (2020) Science lab equipment allows students to actually perform experiments rather than just read about them. Instead of taking monotonous notes, they can observe and complete exciting experiments. Such hands-on learning often makes it easier to understand challenging theories and concepts. As a result, students can become more engaged in the subject matter they are studying and develop a deeper appreciation for the sciences. The science is taught unlike any other subject in school. In addition, the aforementioned, laboratory tools and equipment allows students to directly take part with the subject matter they are studying. By actively embarking with their curriculum, students often displayed better recollection. While a student may have to read over challenging subject matter several times before they are able to retain the information, completing a single experiment and seeing the results first-hand can allow the information to stick with them much longer. Without proper science equipment for schools, such engagement and information retention would not be possible for many students.
Another reason according to USA Lab Equipment (2020) why laboratory tools and equipment is important in schools is that it allows students to practice performing experiments. You would not expect someone to be able to successfully drive a car if they have only read about vehicles and never actually got in one to practice behind the wheel. The same is true for science. If students choose to go into a science-based profession someday, they will be expected to perform experiments and engage in hands-on processes. Making the switch from reading about the sciences to putting them in action would be very difficult without having completed a few experiments in school. As such, it is important to provide students with the science laboratory equipment they need to get necessary practice performing experiments.
Therefore, science laboratory equipment and supplies make learning easy for some students. It connotes that science is different from any other subject that a student takes up in school. Teaching science also needs supportive instructions, this discipline unlike other subjects affects the lives of each student a number of ways. which according to Gerges (2022), teaching science requires instructional planning that encourages students to engage their curiosity to explore solutions to socio-scientific issues, use evidence-based explanations to justify their reasoning, elaborate on possible effects, evaluate their findings, and predict potential outcomes based on different variables, like inquiry science where 5E instructional model should be applied such engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate. Gerges (2022) emphasized that The 5E model is a planning tool for inquiry teaching that provides a structure for students to connect science ideas with their experiences and apply their learning to new contexts.
Moreover, the researcher got interested to conduct a survey on adequacy of Science laboratory equipment for the progress of the students. Particularly the STEM students studying more on sciences. It is also intended to know the effect of availability of Science laboratory equipment on the students’ attentiveness in learning science at RPMD National Science High School.
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