The effect of STEM activities on creativity in pre-school

Preschool education, children's imagination, creative and critical thinking skills, to be aware of what is around, to ask questions about the questions asked, to investigate, to explore and to learn by doing, by experiencing STEM approach is considered important to include in class applications. In this context, the aim of the study; The aim of this course is to develop STEM activities for 5-6 age group students and to investigate the effects of these STEM activities on students' creativity levels. A descriptive case study has been adopted as a method in the research. The sample of the study consisted of 60 students and 4 pre-school teachers in the kindergarten of a state primary school in Rize province, in the fall semester of 2018-2019 academic year, in the 5-6 age group. In the study, 6 STEM activities were developed and each activity was applied in a total of 8 weeks. Torrance Creativity Creative Thinking Test In the study, Figure A and B, interview notes and field notes were used as data collection tools. The dependent sample t-test was used to evaluate the quantitative data. Qualitative data were evaluated by content analysis. According to the findings, the activities developed based on the STEM approach are appropriate for the cognitive development, psycho-motor development, language development and social-emotional development areas of pre-school 5-6 age group children and the STEM activities are related to the creativity levels of the pre-school aged 5-6 age group; originality, fluency, enrichment, the abstraction of the heads and the resistance to early closure. As a result of the research; It has been proposed to develop materials based on MTS that teachers can implement in the classroom by STEM approach and to give seminars by experts to develop and implement the materials available in teachers classes.