Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Science-Technology-Society (STS) approach on creativity and academic performance in Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecology among secondary school Biology students in Suleja Education Zone, Niger State, Nigeria. A pre-test-Posttest Control Group Quasi-Experimental Design was employed for this study. The population of the study is composed of 2,263 SS2 Biology students from 8 public Senior Secondary Schools in Suleja Education Zone. From this population, 3 co-educational schools were randomly selected, pre-tested and subjected to ANOVA and Scheffes's Test statistics. From these, two (2) schools were found to be statistically equivalent academically and were randomly assigned assigned Experimental and Control groups. The sample for the study consisted of 150 (77males and 73 females) SS2 Biology students from the two academically equivalent Senior Secondary Schools. The students in the experimental group were taught the concept of Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecology for a period of six weeks using the STS Approach while the control group was taught the same the same content using lecture method. The instruments used for data collection are Ecology Performance Test (EPT) and Students' Creativity Assessment Scale (SCAS). The instruments were validated by experts and their reliability coefficients were determined using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Spear Rank Order Correlation statistics respectively. The reliability coefficient of EPT is 0.87 and was obtained through test-re-test method while that of SCAS is 0.79 and was obtained using split-half (odd-even) method. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The research questions were answered using mean, median and standard deviation while t-test independent and Man-Whitney U-test were used to test the null hypotheses at P <0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that students in the experimental group performed significantly better than those in the control group both in academic achievement and creative traits attainment. However, no significant difference in the academic performance of the experimental group subjects was obtained in relation to gender, indicating that the STS Approach is gender-friendly. Based on the findings, it is recommended among others that Biology teachers should frequently use STS Approach in teaching Biology concepts.