The effects of 5 e learning model designed for biodiversity on 5th grade students' academic achievement, interests and views towards nature

Objective: The aim of the study is to examine the effect of a lesson plan designed according to the 5E instructional model on students' achievement and interest in nature in the teaching of biodiversity. Materials and Methods: The sample of the study consists of two fifth classes from Altıeylül Middle School in Köşk district of Aydın province. Random assignment was used to create experimental and control groups from these two classes. A total of 60 students participated in the study, with n=30 in the experimental group and n=30 in the control group. While the lessons in the control group were conducted according to the traditional curriculum of the Ministry of National Education, the experimental group was taught 8 lesson hours with a lesson plan prepared in accordance with the 5E instructional model. In this study, where a pre-test post-test control group quasi-experimental design was used as the model, "Biological Diversity Achievement Test" was used as a data collection tool to measure students' academic achievement in the subject of biodiversity, "Nature Relatedness Scale" to determine their interest and relationship levels with nature, and a semi-structured interview technique was used to reveal the effects of the lesson plan designed according to the 5E instructional model on student opinions. Quantitative data obtained in the study were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 program, and data obtained from semi-structured interviews were analyzed with qualitative analysis. Findings: In the study, the normality assumptions of the quantitative data were tested using a normality test first, as they would be effective in determining the applied analysis method; it was observed that the data had a normal distribution. To perform the dependent pre-test and post-test comparative analysis within the groups, a dependent sample t-test was used, and for the independent pre-test and post-test comparative analysis between groups, an independent sample t-test was used. In these tests, the significance level was accepted as p< 0.05. Result: As a result of the analyses conducted; when the pre-tests of the experimental and control groups were compared, it was found that there was no significant difference between the two groups, indicating that the groups had homogeneous structures. It was determined that the success average of the experimental group, where the lesson plan designed according to the 5E teaching model was applied, was higher than the success average of the control group where traditional teaching was applied. As a result of the education applied to both groups, an increase in the level of relationship with nature was observed. Compared to the control group, it was determined that in the experimental group, there was a "moderate" positive effect in the self dimension, a "high" effect in the perspective dimension, and a "high" effect in the experience dimension, which are sub-dimensions of the relationship with nature. Analysis of the data obtained from semi-structured interviews revealed an increase in the frequency values of success and interest towards nature in both the experimental and control groups. It was observed that there was a significant difference in favor of the experimental group where the lesson plan designed according to the 5E teaching model was applied, based on the data obtained from the interviews.