The Effect of Practical Activities Using the Guided Inquiry Approach on Students' Science Process Skills in Grade X Ecosystem Material

Abstract

Science process skills are important abilities that students must have in order to think scientifically and systematically in understanding material and applying it in everyday life. This study aims to determine the effect of guided inquiry practical activities on students' science process skills. The type of research used is a quasi-experiment with a pretest-posttest control group design. The research population includes all 350 students in grade X at SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei Tuan. The research sample consisted of 70 students, comprising class X-10 as the experimental class using the guided inquiry approach and class X-9 as the control class using the conventional method. The research instrument was a science process skills test consisting of 20 questions that had been validated by experts. The research process began with a pretest, followed by biology learning activities using the guided inquiry model, and ended with a posttest to measure learning improvement. The analysis results showed a t-count value of 7.094 > t-table 1.995 at a significance level of 0.05, which means that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control classes. Thus, guided inquiry-based learning had a positive effect on improving students' science process skills in the ecosystem material in class X at SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei Tuan.