The effect of STEM activities with waste materials on environmental awareness and recycling perception of secondary school students

This research was carried out to determine whether design-based STEM activities with waste materials have any effect on middle school students' environmental awareness and recycling perception. The sample of the study consisted of 22 6th grade students in the 2019-2020 academic year. Mixed method was used in the study. In order to reveal whether there is a change in students' environmental awareness, a single group pre-test-post-test model, which is one of the weak experimental designs, was used. "STEM Attitude Scale" and "Environmental Awareness Scale" were used to obtain quantitative data. An open-ended "Semi-structured interview form" created by the researcher was used to obtain qualitative data. Before and after the events "Environment… similar because…" and "Recycling… similar because…." The complete sentence test with two questions was applied. For 8 weeks, students were given design-based STEM education with activities made of waste materials. When the pre-test post-test scores of STEM attitude scale are compared, it is seen that there is a significant difference. In qualitative data, it is concluded that environmental awareness has improved. This result supports the result we reached from the Environmental Awareness Scale. When qualitative data are examined for the perception of recycling; students; perceptions are increasing positively. In addition, it was observed that almost all of the students liked STEM activities, they found them enjoyable and useful.