The place of renewable energy in science the projects of middle school students

Renewable energy is getting more and more important in human life day by day. For this reason, this subject is also the topic for educational research and is an important content especially in science education curricula and textbooks. Renewable energy can also be an issue for the projects carried out by students. In this document analysis study, the position of renewable energy in those projects carried out by the students is discussed. In this context, it has been studied which the students recommend renewable energy types in their projects from 2017 to 2021, for which needs they suggest, how the projects in question are distributed over the years, and which ones they focus on in those projects where they include more than one renewable energy type. In this study, 62677 projects were examined in line with analysing unit and 1515 projects were included in the renewable energy categories by taking expert opinion. Frequency charts were designed by creating categories and subcategories. As a result of the evaluation of these data, it was determined that the students carried out the 941 of projects in the discipline of physics, and they focused on electrical energy production according to their needs. In the context of renewable energy type, it has been determined that students mostly focus on solar energy in their projects. It has been determined that 548 projects carried out by students with renewable energy in 2020 are more than in other years. In addition, solar energy took the first place in the projects where they used more than one type of renewable energy in each project. Based on this information, it can be suggested that education and teaching curricula should be developed with a view to renewable and clean energy production in order to support school learning about renewable energy, and geothermal and biomass energies should be emphasized. The study is expected to provide an overview of renewable energy education to researchers, teachers and adults who are interested in this field, and to guide relevant scientific research.