Investigating the effect of robotic-assisted STEM implementations on the computational thinking, motivation and professional interests of secondary school students

This study aims to examine the effect of using robotic support in STEM activities. Sixth grade students in a public school in Afyonkarahisar participated to the study. In the study, explanatory sequential approach, one of the mixed methods, was used. While STEM activities supported by Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot kit were performed for the experimental group with 22 participants, STEM activities supported by basic materials were performed for the control group with 22 participants. Lego Mindstorms EV3 training was provided for the experimental group students before the activities. The students in the study performed different activities for five weeks. Engineering design process steps were included during the events. The Self-Efficacy Scale for Computational Thinking, the STEM Motivation Scale and the Interest Scale for STEM Careers were applied to the groups as pre-test and post-test. In addition, after the activities were completed, students filled out the reflection report form. According to the research results, there was a statistically significant increase belonging to each of the experimental and control groups in the self-efficacy perceptions of computational thinking skills, in STEM motivations, and their interest in STEM careers. With the ANCOVA test in which the pretest results were kept as a common variable and the groups as a constant variable, the effects of robotics used in the experimental group on STEM activities were investigated. As a result, it was founded that while there were no significant differences in students' self-efficacy in computational thinking skills, STEM motivation for each sub-field, and interest in science and mathematics professions, there is a significant difference in their technology, engineering, and general STEM professions interests. In summary, using robotic support in STEM activities has been found to have a positive contribution to students' interests in technology, engineering fields and general STEM professional interests. According to the results of the reflection reports at the end of the application, the students gave positive feedback about the activities in general. They also wanted to use the activities in different lessons. In addition, they also stated that they had difficulty in designing and coding Keywords: Robotic coding, Lego Mindstorm EV3, Computational thinking, STEM, Engineering design process.