The effects of STEM based outdoor activities on the prospective science teachers' academic achievement about the plants and the opinions about the outdoor activities

In this study; in the General Biology Laboratory II course, it was aimed to investigate the effects of the activities formed with STEM approach out of school with an experimental practice carried out with pre-service science second grade teachers (n = 32) on the academic achievement of teacher candidates and their views on STEM understanding out of school. The teacher candidates in the experimental group (n = 16) carried out activities in different ecosystems in the campus garden and Muğla Akyaka with worksheets prepared in accordance with the STEM curriculum. In these activities, the teacher candidates examined the plants in their natural ecosystems, took a boat tour to make wider and detailed observations and answered the questions by following the scientific processes in the worksheets. The pre-service teachers in the control group (n = 16) carried out the same subjects with the same worksheets prepared in the laboratory environment with the same STEM activities. According to the post-test results applied at the end of the 12-week experimental research, it was found that outdoor STEM activities increased academic achievement positively, and it was found that prospective teachers' research, questioning, recording data, observing and communicating, etc. It has been observed that outdoor STEM contributes positively to scientific process skills. Teacher candidates stated that it makes learning enjoyable, increases the permanence of the learned knowledge, increases awareness about plants, improves the sense of curiosity, and encourages research on plants in outddoor STEM activities.