Middle school students' thoughts about out-of-school STEM activities and the group studies during these activities

This study aims to analyze the thoughts of middle school students about out of school Science, Technology, Engineer and Mathematics (STEM) activities they attended and their opinions on the group studies during these activities. Within the scope of the study, a 'Science Festival' was organized for middle school students, and 20 students from a middle school in the second semester of the 2015-2016 academic year participated in the study. The participants implemented six activities determined during the festival. The forms with open-ended questions were applied to the students at the beginning and at the end of the festival. At the end of each activity, a triple likert-type scale was used in which students evaluated the activity in the context of group work. Content analysis was used to analyze the data obtained from the interview forms. Descriptive analyzes were used to analyze the data obtained from the likert-type scales. As a result of the examinations, it was seen that the average of the responses of the students to the items in the scale was 'Very Good' for all activities, and out-of-school STEM activities were reflected in a positive way in group studies and self-evaluation. When the structured interview forms were examined, students stated that they liked the STEM activities and they understood the concepts better with these activities. In addition, the majority of the students stated that they want to have a job related to the fields of STEM in the future.