Investigation of the effect of STEM aplications on the attitudes and scientific process skills of 7th grade students

In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effect of using STEM applications on science students' attitudes and scientific process skills in the teaching of Interaction of Light with Matter in 7th grade. The research was carried out with 20 students studying in a secondary school in Akhisar district of Manisa province in 2018-2019 academic year. In the research, a mixed research design was used in which quantitative and qualitative research designs were combined. One group pre-test / post-test control group-free quasi-experimental model was used to determine the changes that may occur in students' attitudes towards science course and scientific process skills of STEM applications. In order to determine the opinions of the students in the study group about the teaching created according to the STEM engineering design model, STEM opinion form and semi-structured interview form were used. In the study group, the courses were supported by the activities of STEM. Before and after the study, the 36-item Science Attitude Scale (SAS) and the 27-item Scientific Process Skills Scale (SPSS) were administered. In addition, at the end of the application, STEM Opinion Form (SOF) was applied to the study group students and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 randomly selected students. The quantitative data obtained from the study were analyzed with SPSS statistical package program. In order to determine the significance of the difference between pre-test and post-test attitude scale results and scientific process skills scores, parametric tests were used in the analysis of the data and the results obtained were analyzed by t-test. According to the results of pre-test / post-test analysis, it was concluded that the use of STEM applications positively affected students' attitudes towards science course and scientific process skills. In addition, the content analysis of the SGF and semi-structured interviews applied to the study group students were conducted and in the light of the findings reached, it was concluded that the courses supported by STEM applications increased the interest and motivation of the students, the lessons were more enjoyable and the subjects were better understood. Keywords: STEM, attitude, scientific process skills