The effect of group engineering design-based robotics applications on students' daily life-based problem solving skills

Developing technology and education policies shape the existing curriculum. Robotics education is based on students' algorithmic thinking. Students can solve real-life technological problems more easily, and their thinking and problem-solving skills increase. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of group engineering design-based robotics applications on secondary school students' problem solving skills based on daily life and also to examine students' views on this subject. Typical case sampling, one of the purposive sampling methods, was preferred for indepth examination of the cases that are thought to have rich information. The study group of the research consisted of 43 secondary grade students, 11 girls and 32 boys, who took the Secondary School Information Technologies course in the 2019-2020 academic year. Mixed viii method design was used in the research and formative assessment was used as a qualitative research method, and a single-group pretest-posttest was determined in the quantitative part of the weak experimental design. In the quantitative research part, the "Daily Life-Based Problem Solving Skill Test" developed by Pekbay (2017) was applied as a pre-test and post-test. In the qualitative research part, researcher observation notes were used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 volunteer students in order to determine the students' views on engineering design-based robotics applications. The sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used and it was concluded that there was a significant difference since p=0.001, p<0.005. The effect size value, whose effect size was calculated with Cohen's d, was calculated as d=-3.62, r=0.87, and it shows that group engineering design-based robotic applications have a great effect on the student's problem solving skills based on daily life. According to the findings obtained in the qualitative part of the research, students stated that they enjoyed engineering design-based robotics applications, they found it fun to work with the group, peer teaching took place, and robotic applications contributed positively to their daily lives.