The effect of activities for sustainability awareness on students' sustainable living awareness in 6th grade social studies course

As an active member of the society, the Social Studies course contributes to the development of awareness on social and environmental issues among students. Today, the concept of sustainability is gaining importance, as environmental problems are increasing day by day and in negative forms all over the world. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of activities for sustainability awareness on students' sustainable living awareness in 6th grade Social Studies course. The research was carried out according to the embedded experimental design which is one of the mixed-method designs. The participants consist of students attending in a 6th grade of a public secondary school in Eskişehir in the 2021-2022 academic year. Data were collected with "Sustainable Living Awareness Scale" (SLAS) developed by Akgül and Aydoğdu (2020), and semi-interviews with customers. Quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS 24 Package Program. Inductive analysis was used in qualitative data analysis. As a result of the research, it was found that activities for sustainability awareness significantly increased the sustainable living awareness levels of the students in the experimental group. Additionally, students emphasized that activities for sustainability awareness had a significant effect on the increase in sustainable living awareness level. In this context, suggestions put forth that activities for sustainability awareness can be used to improve students' sustainable living awareness levels in the Social Studies course.