Investigation of 6th grade students' experiences with context based STEM activities

With this research, it is aimed to examine the experiences of 6th grade students on renewable energy resources in the ''Matter and Heat'' unit of the science course on context-based STEM activities in the focus of scientific creativity and STEM professions. The model of the research was the ''Phenomenology'' pattern, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The sample of the research consists of 10 students studying in the 6th grade in the fall semester of the 2022-2023 academic year in a state secondary school in the Derbent district of Konya province. 4 STEM activities based on context-based learning were developed for the research, and each activity was applied lasting 4 hours for a total of 8 weeks. In the research, Semi-Structured Interview Form, Participant Observation Form and Diary Form were used as a data collection tools. In the semi-structured interview form, open ended questions to reveal the experiences of the students in the application of process and the questions selected from the interest form STEM Professions Scale (STEM-MYİÖ) and Scientific Creativity Scale (BYÖ) were included. In this context, students' scientific creativity skills and attitudes towards STEM Professions were also discussed as a part of their experience. The questions of the semi-structured interview form including attitudes towards scientific creativity and STEM Professions were applied before starting the application to make a comparative analysis. After the application was completed, the entire semi-structured interview form was applied, including questions to determine the attitude towards scientific creativity and STEM professions. The participant observer form and the diary form were applied during the execution of the lesson plans. Within the scope of the research, the data obtained from the semi-structured interview form, diary forms subjected to content analysis. Then, the data obtained from all data collection tolls were read separately by the researcher and expert in the field of science education and integrated. The findings obtained from the analysis of the data were discussed in the context of the creativity, STEM, learning experience, engineering and design and utility. In this direction, according to the results of the research, it was seen that the students gained positive experience and partially developed skills in developing scientific creative products and presenting scientific creative ideas with context-based STEM activities. In the context of creative thinking, it was concluded that the students developed Creative Solutions for Different Problem Situations and gained experience in terms of creative design development that facilitates daily life. One result obtained from the research is that context-based STEM activities develop a perception and awareness of STEM disciplines and STEM professions in students. The results obtained in this context indicate that students' interest in science, mathematics and engineering disciplines that make up STEM have increased. However, it has been observed that students' interest in technology discipline is quite low. On the other hand, the students evaluated the learning experience gained by the applications carried out within the scope of the research in the dimensions of their feeling, thoughts, interest in the activities and science communication. In addition, the engineering design dimensions of context-based STEM activities provided a detailed synthesis of design preparation, design process and the outcome of the design process. Finally, in this study, in which renewable energy sources are handled as a real-life context, the students evaluated the benefits of STEM activities to daily life and the country in line with their experiences. The findings of the research were discussed in the light of the related literature and suggestions were presented. Keywords: STEM, Context-Based Learning, Scientific Creativity, Interest in STEM Profession, STEM Activities Based on Context-Based Learning