Investigation of circuit design skills of students receiving simulation-based robotic coding training on real sets

The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of simulation software used in robotic coding education on students' academic achievement and circuit design skills with real sets. It was also aimed to examine students' attitudes towards the simulation software used. A quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group was used in the study. SOGORBA rating scale was created to observe the circuit design skills of the students. After the academic study, the students in the experimental and control groups were made to practice circuit design and the data were entered into the SOGORBA rubric. The research was conducted with students attending the 5th grade of a private middle school in the 2nd semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. Robotic coding trainings were implemented in a workshop environment for 5 weeks, 2 days a week. The study group consisted of 28 students in total, 14 in the experimental group and 14 in the control group. While the experimental group received robotic coding training through simulation, the students in the control group received training on real sets. The students in the experimental group were administered the TYHÖA questionnaire to determine their opinions about the Tinkercad software. In the data obtained at the end of the research, it was observed that there was a significant difference between the pretest results of the experimental and control groups in favor of the control group. According to the post-test results, it was concluded that there was no significant difference between both groups. It was concluded that there was a positive difference between the pretest and posttest scores of both groups. As a result of the observations made with the SOGORBA rubric, it was observed that there was no significant difference between the control group and the experimental group when the averages of the scores obtained by the students in the groups were taken. As a result, despite the initial differences due to the pretest results, there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the posttest and SOGORBA rubric as a result of simulation-based robotic coding training. The "Tinkercad" software used in robotic coding training is an option that has a positive effect and is as effective as real sets.