The investigation of educational robotics activities on middle school students' course motivation, robotic attitudes and success

The aim of this study is to investigate the educational robotic activities which carried out at the 6th grades of secondary schools on the motivation, attitude and success of the students, in the Information Technology and Software Course. In the study, embedded design, one of mixed research methods, was used. The study group consisted of 112 students studying at the level of the 6th grade in Tuzla Ulubatlı Hasan Secondary School who were selected by using purposeful sampling method. In accordance with the curriculum developed by the researcher, robotic instruction was applied by using the block-basedMblock program with the Arduino training set for 8 weeks. The course outcomes are designed to include the concepts of programming, loop, condition, variable and electronic targets. Course interest scale, robotic attitude scale, achievement test, practice exam, semi-structured interview form and teacher daily records were used as the data collection tools. According to the results of the study, while the motivation of the students towards the course was at the middle level before and after the activities, it was determined that the motivational points averages were relatively lower at the end of the activities. When the practice activities were completed, it was discovered that the students' robotic attitudes were at a good level and their academic achievements were pretty good. Besides, it was determined that the students' motivation level for the course had a significant effect on the robotic attitude. In the study, it was revealed that the gender independent variable had no effect on the motivation, robotic attitude and academic achievement of the students. On the other hand, during the interviews with the students, some of them stated that they found the practices fun and associated them with real life. They also stated that they would include areas related to computer and robotics in their career plans, and wanted to use what they had learned in projects and competitions. At the end of the activities, it was defined that the robotic attitudes were at a good level and they developed positive attitudes towards robotic skills. In the interviews, the students also explained that they were able to relate educational robotics activities with other courses and stated that their self-confidence increased and they could design robots in the future. Based on the findings obtained from the research, some recommendations were made for future practice and studies