Fen Teknoloji Mühendislik ve Matematik Etkinliklerinin Ortaokul Öğrencileri Üzerindeki Etkileri

Abstract

In today’s economic development of the country determined by technological developments, it is very important to grow engineers and specialist in science of the future and to generalize technology literacy. Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) education is an integrated teaching which specialized in science, technology, mathematics and engineering work together to solve problem. STEM education offers opportunities for students to gain 21st century skills. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of STEM activities on middle schools students’ STEM interest and problem solving skills, and to investigate the students’ views of the STEM, STEM activities and process. In the study embedded design as a mixed research methodology was used. Participants were made up of seventh grade totally 71 students from 35 experimental and 36 control groups attending at a public school located in a city in the northern part of Turkey were taking Science Applications during the academic year of 2015-2016. Experimental and control groups classes were assigned randomly. While STEM activities were applied to experimental group, regular curriculum activities were applied to control group students. Pre-posttests applied to experimental groups were STEM Interest Survey, Problem solving skills test and interviews. Pre-posttests which were applied control groups were Problem solving skills test. In accordance with mixed-methods research design, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. While STEM Interest Survey and Problem Solving Skills Test were used as quantitative tools and activities sheets, students’ journals, field notes, semi-structural interviews were used as qualitative tools. As a result, statistical difference was found between experimental group students’ pre and posttests scores of problem solving skills in terms of results. Also, students’ STEM interests were developed after implementation. Findings from qualitative analysis indicated that STEM activities enhanced students’ views of STEM, STEM activities and process. At the same time, students were satisfied with Science Applications Course was implemented STEM activities in. Findings from activity sheets indicated that students related to STEM during activities. Many students thought about activities were “funny”, “provide group work”, “learn science”. On the other hand they referred to some activities were hard because of some materials and students hard to design during activities. Recommendations were presented regarding results.