Examination of the opinions of science teachers on STEM-based activities

In recent years, the rapidly changing economic, technological, and scientific conditions in the world have revealed the necessity of changing the education system. The transformation of the education system according to the 21st century made it necessary for countries to make serious investments in education in order for the countries to have a positive result in the competition. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) approach, which is the most open educational approach to investment and development in recent years, is thought to contribute to the development of countries in technological, economic, and scientific fields. The aim of the study is to obtain the opinions of the teachers who have received STEM training on online STEM-based activities and to evaluate the opinions received. In order to achieve this, 24 science teachers who received STEM education were asked 9 open-ended questions online. The phenomenology, which is one of the qualitative research approaches, was used. In the study, a "Semi-Structured Interview Form" was used to reveal teachers' views on STEM-based activities as a data collection tool. The teachers participating in the study associated the STEM education approach with words and word groups such as 'science, technology, mathematics, recycling, interdisciplinary relationships, physics, engineering, new skill development, creative thinking, invention, 21st century skills, and applied sciences' and emphasized that STEM-based activities are related to all science fields, especially physics. As a result of the research, it was concluded that STEM-based activities reflect positively on the learning-teaching process, contribute to teachers' professional satisfaction, improve students' 21st century skills, and also support the development of the teacher-student relationship. It was emphasized that STEM-based activities improved students' cognitive, social/affective and psychomotor development skills. Teachers stated that while implementing STEM-based activities, students had difficulties in some situations such as during the idea development stage, group work, lack of readiness, and insufficiency of material. Teachers who participated in the study emphasized that if STEM-based activities are applied online, advantages and disadvantages may arise from both the application of STEM-based activities and the online environment. However, whether the STEM-based activities were carried out face to face or online, it was concluded that they have many advantages both for teachers and students. On the other hand, it is understood that both the difficulties arising from face-to-face education and from the online environment make it difficult to implement STEM-based activities online.