In order to assist school-children in learning descriptive concepts of animal growth,the researchers compiled seven digital storybooks in CD-ROM form, and integrated theminto “Water Creatures” and “Insects on Campus” units in the elementary school sciencecurriculum. Quasi-experimental design was implemented with two instruments to describestudents’ concept growth: “Achievement Test of Animal Curriculum (ATAC)” and “OpenQuestionnaires of Descriptive Concepts (OQDC)”. Results indicated that the sixty-fivefourth-graders in experimental group who were taught with digital storybooks had betterachievement in ATAC and OQDC than the sixty-five students in control group who weretaught with traditional narration instruction. Results from OQDC, students’ self-madeillustrated booklets, classroom observations, and teachers’ reflection diary showed that thecontrol group students could only described simple animal concepts according to the linesof the textbooks and network materials, but the experimental group students were morecapable of thorough descriptions of animal growth in their own words through observingand imitating the animated characters in the digital storybooks. This research implies thatdigital storybooks integrated into teaching as an alternative teaching method can providescience teachers with multimedia resources. Science teachers are free to copy the digitalstorybooks designed by the authors for students to use so that students can study with it inclassroom and learn the concept by themselves at home.
Keywords: animal growth knowledge, descriptive concepts, digital storybooks integrated into teaching