Contucted in out of school learning environments domestic waste and recycling activities impact on students' environmental attitudes and opinions

Human and the environment cannot be thought of separately. Humans affect and are affected by the environment in which they live. Unfortunately, in today's world, this interaction is almost one-sided, occurring through the constant destruction of the environment that humans depend on for survival in every sense. While advancing technology introduces new inventions and conveniences into our lives, it also threatens the natural processes, not only being content with natural processes but also directly targeting humans. This research aims to examine the effects of teaching household waste and recycling topics within the scope of science courses to middle school students on their environmental knowledge and attitudes outside of school learning environments. This research also aims to highlight the place of environmental education in human life, how important it is for humans, misconceptions about the environment, and how these misconceptions can be addressed from a different perspective. Accordingly, the learning outcomes of the primary education program have been examined. The learning outcomes related to the environment in the program have been evaluated, and conclusions have been drawn regarding them. The scales used as data collection tools were the "Demographic Information Form," the "Attitude Scale Towards the Environment," and the "Form for Expressing Views on Recycling and Household Waste Issues." This study utilized a "pre-test, post-test control group quasi-experimental research model," the data was evaluated using surveys and scales. The participants of this study were 7th-grade students from a middle school in the Hendek district of Sakarya province. These students consisted of 12 females and 24 males, totaling 36 middle school students. Data analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 26.0 Statistics Package Program. The descriptive characteristics of the students in the experimental and control groups were presented in numbers and percentages, and Chi-square analysis was employed to compare the data between the two groups. An Independent Samples T-Test was conducted to determine if there was a significant difference between the scale scores of the experimental and control groups' pre-test, post-test, and difference scores. A Paired Samples T-Test was also conducted to determine if there was a significant difference between the scales' pre-test and post-test scores within the experimental and control groups. Significance levels for the study were conducted considering the range of values between 0.05 and 0.01. According to the results of the analysis, it has been observed that out-of-school learning environments positively influence students' learning outcomes in the classroom. When considering the demographic information form, it was concluded that the post-test data were more comprehensive than the pre-test data. Significant differences in favor of the experimental group have emerged regarding the dimensions of the students' environmental attitude scale (knowledge, emotion, behavior) concerning household waste and recycling.