The effect of stempractices on seventh grades' attitudes toward STEM, science process skills and career choice

The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of STEM activities in seventh grade science courses on the students' science process skills and attitudes towards STEM and to determine the students' opinions about STEM activities performed. Besides, the study group of this research was formed by 39 seventh grade students including one experimental group (n=18) and one control group (n=21). The courses in the control group were conducted using the method and techniques specified in the 2013 Science curriculum while in the experimental group they were conducted with STEM activities. In this study, "Embedded Design", one of the mixed method designs where qualitative and quantitative methods are used together, was used. As data collection tools; "Science Process Skills Scale" developed by Aydoğdu, Tatar, Yıldız and Buldur (2012), "Secondary School Students' Attitudes towards STEM Scale" translated into Turkish by Yıldırım and Selvi (2015),and "Semi-structured Interview Schedule for STEM Activities" developed by the researcher were used. As a result of this research, it was seen that STEM activities had a significant and positive effect the students' scientific process skills and their attitudes towards STEM. Besides, the students in the experimental group expressed that they interpreted the topic better; the courses were funnier, their hand skills improved, they could associate science with other fields and even the uninterested students became highly interested in the course. Keywords: STEM, scientific process skills, attitude towards STEM, secondary school students