The effect of mathematics supported science teaching on 6th grade students' attitudes, motivations and academic achievements: A case of density

This study aims to investigate the effect of mathematically enriched science teaching on the academic achievements on density, attitudes towards science and mathematics, and motivation towards science learning of sixth grade students. An experimental design was used in the study. The data was collected through quantitative and qualitative data collection tools. The study was conducted with 72 students attending 6th grade of a public school in Ankara. 5E model, POE and question-answer technique were used to experimental and control groups. On the experimental group, worksheets, containing mathematically rich activities and questions, were used. Attitude and motivation scales, density achievement test were applied both as a pilot study and as pre-test and post-test for experimental and control groups. An open-ended question form regarding density was applied to the experimental group as pre-test and post-test. Three students from the experimental group were interviewed about the density. The results showed that both groups had a significant increase in motivation for science learning, attitudes towards science and academic achievements. The attitudes of the experimental group towards mathematics increased significantly. When the means of post-test between experimental and control group were compared, there were significant differences in the attitudes towards mathematics and academic achievements in favor of the experimental group. Academic achievement of the experimental group on the open-ended questions of the density increased in the post-test and the students' conceptual errors regarding density decreased significantly.