5th grade "human and environment" unit, the effect of educational game supported activities on students' academic achievement and environmental attitudes

This study aims to investigate the effect of educational game-supported activities on 5th grade students' academic achievement and attitudes towards the environment. An experimental design with pretest and posttest control group was used. The study was conducted in the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year with 50 middle school students studying in Şereflikoçhisar district of Ankara Province. For the research, the "Human and Environment" unit in the 5th grade Science curriculum was selected and the designed educational game activities were applied for five weeks in the experimental group, while the control group continued with the 2018 Science Curriculum. The research activities were prepared for the "Human and Environment" unit. "Environmental Achievement Test" and 'Environmental Attitude Scale' were used as data collection tools, and the data obtained at the end of the study were analyzed with the SPSS program. Descriptive statistical techniques were applied to determine the level of differentiation of the mean scores of the study groups from the pretest and posttest. As a result, there was a significant difference in the achievement scores of the experimental group students. On the other hand, there was a significant difference in favor of the posttest in the environmental behavior and emotion dimension scores and environmental attitude score of the experimental group students, while there was no significant difference in the environmental thinking dimension. In the control group, the mean differences between the pretest and posttest scores were not significant. Based on the results of the study, some suggestions were made that educational game activities can be given at different grade levels by blending with out-of-school activities and various teaching methods.