The purpose of this study was to investigate how science writing instruction impacted
elementary students’ formation of energy concept and their academic achievement. Two classes,
including 58 th grade students, from an elementary school in a rural city participated in the study.
This study is an experimental design where one class was assigned to the control group and the
other to the experimental group. The intervention included science writing instruction (SWI) about
energy units. Students’ energy conception test and academic achievement test were conducted, and
also the delayed test was performed three months later after the intervention ended. The results
showed as follows: First, the experimental group scored higher than the control group on the
formation of energy concept, which turned out not statistically significant. Second, on the other
hand, SWI participants statistically significantly scored higher than the control group on the
delayed test. Third, in a mind map activity on the delayed test, 76% of SWI students explained
the energy concept using various kinds of energy sources whereas 41% of non-SWI students
explained using electricity and force. Regarding the 5th graders’ academic achievement scores,
SWI intervention class showed more positive effect on the students’ academic achievement than
the traditional class. Based on these results, it is concluded that the SWI intervention helped 5th
grade students to form a meaningful energy concept and made a positive impact on their academic
achievement.