The effect of specially designed educational robotics on force and energy unit success and scientific creativity

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of specially designed educational robotics on force and energy unit success and scientific creativity of elementary school 7th grade students. The research was carried out using a quasi-experimental design with pre-test post-test control group. In the research, educational robotics were designed by the researcher using robotic coding for the force and energy unit in the 7th grade science curriculum. The effects of the activities organized with the designed educational robotics on the students' science achievement and scientific creativity were examined. The Science Preliminary Test (SPT) was developed by the researcher to determine the readiness of the students, and the Strength and Energy Achievement Test (SEAT) was developed to determine the science achievement. The pilot study of the developed data collection tools was applied to 163 7th grade and 223 8th grade students in Çubuk district of Ankara province. The Scientific Creativity Scale (SCA) was used to determine the scientific creativity of the students. The main study was conducted with 45 7th grade students. SEAT and SCA were applied once as a pre-test and post-test to the students in both the experimental and control groups before the SPT application. Five weeks after the post-tests were applied, SEAT was re-applied as a retention test. In the implementation process of the research, the unit topics were covered with educational robotics activities prepared by the researcher in the experimental group, and with the methods and techniques included in the 2018 Science Education Program in the control group. Applications were conducted over 20 hours of lessons for five weeks. The data obtained from the research were analyzed using paired samples t- test, samples, independent samples t- test, and two-factor ANOVA for mixed measures. According to the research findings, it was seen that there was no significant difference between the groups in the pre-test mean scores of students' readiness, science achievement and scientific creativity before the applications. After the experimental procedure, there was a significant difference between the students' science achievement and scientific creativity score means in favor of the experimental group. There was a significant difference the retention test in favor of the experimental group that was applied 5 weeks later from post-tests. The results of the research were discussed, and suggestions were made for researchers and educators.