Opinions of Science Teacher Candidates About Being Able to Design and Conduct A New Experiment

In this study, opinions of science teacher candidates about the experiments they designed and conducted during the course titled General Biology Laboratory II are evaluated. The study was carried out with the participation of 94 candidate teachers studying in the second grade of the Department of Science Teaching, Faculty of Education, Erzincan Binali Y？ld？r？m University, during the spring semester of 2015-2016 academic year. In the study, groups of 4 to 6 people were formed and members of these groups were asked to design and conduct an experiment on the subjects given. The topics were the effect of sour water on the development of plants, the effect of heavy metals on the development of plants, the effect of radiation on the development of plants and the effect of aquatic plants on waste water treatment. Teacher candidates presented the experiments they designed and conducted with posters. The findings demonstrate that teacher candidates have difficulty in designing and conducting experiments, especially in defining the hypothesis, reaching a result, determining the relevant experiment and determining the variables of control group. It was also observed that teacher candidates lack theoretical knowledge and self-confidence