Impact of STEM applications on academic success and permanence in the solar system and beyond unit

This study was carried out in order to examine the effect of using STEM applications in the Solar System and Beyond Unit of the 7th grade curriculum of science course on students' academic success and permanence. The study was performed with 32 students from two classes of Mehmet Akif Ersoy Secondary School in the city center of Bayburt. In the study, the semi-experimental method with pre-test and post-test control group was used. The classes was randomly chosen as experimental group (n= 15) and as control group (n= 17). While the science course was conducted with the control group in the active curriculum, STEM applications were integrated to the existing program in the experimental group. As a data collection tool the Solar System and Beyond Unit Success Test were applied to both groups before and after the application, Data obtained in the research were analyzed with SPSS 21 statistical package program. In order to test the hypotheses of the study, Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests and non-parametric dependent groups-t test were used.When the data obtained from the pretest was evaluated, it was seen that the groups were equivalent. It was understood from the results of the statitical analysis that the science curriculum supported by STEM education-based teaching practices increased the academic achievement of students provided a permanent increase in terms of students' academic achievement and permanence