Investigatin of conceptual developments on geoscience subjects and sustainable environmental awareness levels grade 7 students who education on geoscience

The aim of this study is to examine the conceptual development on geoscince subject and sustainable environmental awareness levels of 7th grade students who participating geoscience education. Geoscience subjects have been classified as the structure and formation of the Earth, the layers of the Earth, minerals, rocks, fossils, soil, plate tectonics, geological time and destructive natural events. In the study, embedded design, one of the mixed methods research designs, was used. In the embedded design, the quantitative data are embedded in the case study, which is the basic design. The lesson plans prepared in accordance with the inquiry-based teaching model recommended by the Ministry of National Education were applied to the students who participated in the study. The study group was selected from 7th grade students in a public school through convenient sampling. In this study, quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques were used to collect data. As a quantitative data collection tool; "Sustainable Environmental Awareness Questionnaire" and "Geoscience Concept Achievement Test" were applied to the study group as pre-test and post-test. After the quantitative data collection tools were applied to the study group as a pre-test, 8 students were selected from the study group according to the results obtained from the quantitative data from the lower, middle and upper levels in accordance with the maximum diversity sampling method. Qualitative data were obtained from 8 students. In order to collect qualitative data, observations were made by the geoscience expert and science teacher using the "Observation Form" during the practices in the study group. In order to collect qualitative data, observations were made by using the "Observation Form" in the study group during the practices, "Science heuristic notebooks" prepared by the students during the activities were used. In addition, worksheets and evaluation questions for each activity were applied to the students in order to evaluate the activities. After the applications were completed, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students determined according to purposive sampling. The results obtained from the quantitative and qualitative data of the study showed that geoscience education had a positive effect on the conceptual development of 7th grade students in geoscience subjects. In addition, it has been observed that the level of sustainable environmental awareness of the students participating in geoscience education has increased. As a result of the students' YBKBT pre-test, post-test, retention test, science heuristic notebook data, weekly interviews with students and final interviews, it was revealed that the use of science notebook positively affected their academic achievement in YBKBT results for earth science, and it made it easier to remember from the YBKBT retention test data. As a result of the students' YBKBT pre-test, post-test, retention test, science notebook data, weekly interviews with students and final interviews, it was revealed that the learning-teaching process applied in geoscience education positively affected their academic achievement in the results of YBKBT for geoscience. Suggestions have been made to associate geoscience with sustainability, to include it in 7th grade programs and to determine the achievements in accordance with this education.