The effect of activities developed according to REACT Strategy in out of school environments on the teaching of 5th grade people and environmental unit: Action research

The one that changes and changes the rapidly shaped world day by day is education. The importance of education, which takes shape according to all conditions, has been to learn to learn. Due to its significant effect on learning to learn, teaching in out-of-school learning environments is gaining importance day by day. In this study, it is aimed to examine the effects of the activities developed within the scope of REACT strategies in out-of-school learning environments on the teaching of the 5th grade "Human and Environment" unit. Action research, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The study was conducted with 26 5th grade students in the 2019-2020 academic year. In the study, activities and worksheets were prepared according to the achievements of the 5th grade "Human and Environment" unit in the 2018 Science Curriculum. The activities were prepared according to the REACT strategy to be implemented in out-of-school environments. Each step of the REACT strategy was carried out in an out-of-school setting. Teaching was carried out with three action plans. Unit achievement test, behavior scale for environmental problems, biomimicry design evaluation rubric, interview, researcher notes, worksheets and student diaries were used as data collection tools. Biomimicry products are scored with a biomimicry design evaluation rubric. While SPSS program was used for quantitative data, content analysis was performed with NVivo program for qualitative data. The achievement test and environmental problems behavior scale scores applied as pre-test and post-test differed significantly in favor of the experimental group. Activities used in action research, trips, student diaries after the trip, researcher notes, interviews were analyzed by content analysis method. According to the findings, teaching with activities prepared according to the REACT strategy in out-of-school learning environments increases student readiness, raises curiosity and motivation, makes students more ready for learning, improves students' high-level mental skills and influences students' behavior towards environmental problems. And it has been concluded that it has become sensitive to the environment. According to the results obtained from the study, some suggestions were made, and it was suggested that the frequency of using out-of-school learning environments could be increased by preparing more activities for out-of-school learning environments.