Investigation of the effect of the unit of systems in our body treated in the school garden on students' interest levels regarding science subjects and their motivation for science learning

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of teaching the 6th grade science course "Systems in Our Body" Unit in the school garden with lesson plans prepared according to the 5E teaching model on students' interest in science subjects and their motivation to learn science. From the research quantitative research methods, the preliminary test final test control groups were carried out according to the semi experimental pattern. In this context, the systems unit in our body in the experimantel group was supported by the school garden activities suitables fort, the curriculum. Lesson plans suitable for 5E model were prepared and implemented in both groups. The application was completed in the form of seven weeks and twenty eight lesson hours in two groups. The working group consists of 51 secondary school sixth grade students studying at the public school in Tokat city in the 2023-2024 academic year. Easily accessible state sampling method was preferred when creating a workgroup. In the research the scale of interest for science subjects and the motivation scale for science learning were used as a data collection tool. Fort he required statistical solutions of normally distributed data, parametric analysis methods-dependent t-test and independent t-test were used. As a result of the research it was determined that while there was no significant difference between the interest pre-test post test score, of the control group students for science subjects it was a significant difference between the pre-test final test scores of the experiment group. Again, there was no significant difference between the relevant post test scores for the science subjects of the experiment and control groups. In the study, there was no significant difference between the motivational pre-test post test scores of both experimental and control group students for science learning. However, there was no significant difference between the post test scores of the motivation of the experimental and control groups towards science learning. According to the data obtained as a result of the research, it is evaluated that science courses supported by school garden activities may work in increasing the interest of students in science subjects. However, it can be said that the science course supported by school garden activities is not meaningfully effective in increasing the motivation of students for science learning.