The effect of Scratch-supported teaching in the 7th grade science course on students' academic achievement, motivation and opinions on the course

This research examines the effect of Scratch-supported teaching on students' academic achievement, motivation, and opinions about the course in teaching of the unit of the interaction of light with matter in the 7th-grade science course. For this purpose, 37 students in the research study group formed the research study group at a public secondary school in the Şenpazar district of Kastamonu province in the second semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. There are 20 students in the randomly selected experimental group and 17 in the control group. The study used a sequential explanatory design, a mixed research method in which quantitative and qualitative research methods are used together. In the research, quantitative data was first collected, then qualitative data was collected. The study's quantitative data were collected with the interaction of light with matter unit academic achievement test and the motivation scale for learning science, and the qualitative data were collected with a semi-structured interview form. In the research, a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test control group, one of the experimental research methods, was used to determine the effect of Scratch-supported applications on students' academic achievement and motivation. In addition, the case study method was used to collect qualitative data with a semi-structured interview form applied to nine experimental group students to obtain their opinions about Scratch-supported activities and the course. While the relevant unit topics were explained to the students in the control group according to the 2018 Science Course Curriculum, they were presented to the students in the experimental group with Scratch-supported applications in addition to the existing program. As a result of the analysis of the data, a statistically significant difference was detected in the academic achievement of the students in the experimental group compared to the students in the control group. While a statistically significant difference was seen in their motivation in favor of the students in the experimental group only in the performance sub-dimension, no significant difference was detected in the other research, communication, collaboration, and participation sub-dimensions. According to the data obtained from the semi-structured interview form applied to nine students selected from the experimental group, the students stated that they learned the subject well, their interest and desire for the course increased, the lessons were more fun and fluent, they were able to demonstrate their performance better, and they also wanted to benefit from Scratch applications for other courses. It is recommended that the Scratch program be used more in science courses to develop algorithms and improve students' computational thinking skills.