The effect of scratch-assisted teaching on grade seven primary students' academic achievement and attitudes towards Science in the unit "pure substances and mixtures"

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of Scratch-assisted instruction on students' academic achievement and attitudes in the Pure Substances and Mixtures unit of the 7th grade Science course. In this study, a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups was used. Besides, both direct and online student activity observations were made throughout the application. Opinions of the experimental group students about the application were taken in a written way. The study group of the research consists of two 7th grade classes in a secondary school in a district of the province Ağrı in the 2020-2021 academic year. The Scratch supported science education was conducted in the experimental group. Before and after the study, Science course achievement test, attitude scale and permanence test were applied to the experimental and control group students participating in the research. Four weeks after the post-test, the achievement test was applied as a permanence test. Quantitative data were analyzed by independent t-test. Observation data and written opinions were analyzed descriptively. In the study, it was observed that there was a significant difference in favor of the experimental group in terms of academic achievement, attitude towards science and permanence of knowledge. Qualitative findings showed that students found the application motivating and entertaining, and demand that the method should also be used in other Science topics as well.