The effect of STEM activities supported by context-based on the engineering skills and career choice of 6th grade students

This research aims to examine the effect of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) activities supported by a context-based learning approach on the engineering knowledge levels and career choices of 6th grade students.. The research was conducted in a secondary school in the Western Black Sea Region during the fall semester of the 2024-2025 academic year. The study group consisted of 23 sixth-grade students selected via voluntary sampling, a purposive sampling method. The explanatory sequential design, one of the mixed research methods, was employed in the study. The "one-group pretest-posttest weak experimental design" was adopted for the quantitative dimension, while the qualitative dimension utilized a case study approach.The implementation process was conducted over 10 weeks (totaling 40 lesson hours), with 4 hours per week, utilizing lesson plans developed by the researcher and structured according to the REACT strategy. Quantitative data were collected using the "Engineering Knowledge Level Scale" and the "STEM Career Interest Scale," while qualitative data were obtained through student opinions. A paired samples t-test was used for the analysis of quantitative data, and content analysis was used for the qualitative data. The findings indicate that activities supported by Context-Based Learning and the REACT strategy provided a statistically significant increase in students' engineering knowledge levels and positively affected their interest in engineering professions. In conclusion, it was determined that supporting STEM education with context-based approaches contributes to students' academic and vocational development.