The effect of robotic & coding supported STEM activities applied in science lessons on science education motivations and robotic attitudes of primary school students

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of education given to 3rd grade primary school students with STEM and robotic coding activities in science classes on the students' motivation and attitude in the course.The training is designed in accordance with the MEB curriculum. This training was carried out simultaneously with "force and motion" topics in 3rd grade science. The training content includes STEM and robotics coding activities related to force and motion topic. The curriculum consists of STEM and robotics programming activities focused on force and movement, carefully designed and implemented in collaboration with subject matter experts and classroom teachers. The training lasted 6 weeks at the grade level to be applied. The training is designed as 1 lesson per week. The structure of the research is cross-sectional and it is a research with more than one subject. The study follows a quasi-experimental model with a single-group pre-test and single-group post-test design, using a multi-participant cross-sectional structure, especially in the context of quantitative research. Researchers selected participants using convenient sampling methods. The research was planned in a primary school in the Çekmeköy district of Istanbul and took place in the 2021-2022 academic year. Students aged 8-9, studying in the 3rd grade, participated in the research. The research was planned in accordance with the MEB curriculum and simultaneously. A total of 51 3rd grade students participated in the training planned for the research. As a result of all the applications implemented during the education process, students' motivation towards the science course and their attitudes towards robotic activities have increased positively as a per of pre- and post-training evaluation results. However this increase is not evaluated as significant per statistical findings that providing motivation in science education. In practice, also no numerically significant results could be reached for the robotic activities attitude scale. Within the scope of the results obtained, the research can help in the production of new research related to the field of study.