Effect of the STEM activities related to work-energy and impulse-momnetum topics on academic achievement and conceptual understanding level

In this study, the effects of the STEM (Science-Technology-Mathematics-Engineering) activities on the academic achievement and conceptual understanding of the prospective teachers were investigated on the topics of Work-Energy and Impulse-Momentum through the Physics 1 course. To accomplish the aim, the data collection tools named as "Work-Energy Achievement Test", "Impulse-Momentum Achievement Test" and "Work-Energy and Impulse-Momentum Conceptual Understanding Test" were employed and additionally to achieve qualitative analysis, "STEM Education Student Opinion Survey" was used to determine the opinions of the prospective teachers about STEM activities. In the study, semi-experimental model with control group was used. During the application step of the research, Work-Energy and Impulse-Momentum subjects were processed in FeTeMM activities approach to the students in the experimental group. In the control group, the lessons were carried out with the traditional educational approaches. Quantitative data of the work was analyzed by using the SPSS 22.0 statistical program and qualitative data was analyzed using the descriptive analysis method. As a result of the research, a significant difference was found in favor of the experimental group in terms of the academic achievement of the teacher candidates for Work-Energy subject. Similarly, a statistically significant difference was detected in favor of the experimental group in terms of the academic achievement of the teacher candidates relating the Impulse-Momentum topic. Although there is no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of conceptual understanding relating Work-Energy and Impulse-Momentum issues, meaningful positive effects of STEM activities on conceptual understanding are found. In addition, in the experiment group where STEM activities were carried out, prospective teachers' opinions on STEM education were found to be substantially positive.