The effects of mandala activities in STEAM (STEM + art) education on the mathematic achievement and creative thinking of 6th grade students

In this thesis, it is aimed to examine the effects of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) integration on the mathematics achievement and creativity levels of middle school sixth grade students. For this purpose, the propagation of sound waves, videos, internet environment and mandala art were used for teaching the circle subject. With the STEAM activity applied, it was thought that the mathematics achievement of the students would increase, unlike the current education followed in mathematics lessons. In addition, it is expected that teachers will gain a different perspective. In the First Chapter; status of the problem, its importance, limitations, assumptions, definitions and abbreviations. In the second part; There are studies on mathematics, STEAM, mandala, circle and their historical development. In the Third Chapter; The model and group of the study, the Circle Achievement Test and its development processes, the Scientific Creativity and Design evaluation Rubric and its applications are explained. The validity and reliability of the research and the role of the researcher were given by data analysis. Embedded experimental mixed method was used in the research. The quasi-experimental design was used in the quantitative dimension of the method, and the case study in the qualitative dimension. The study group of the research consisted of 6th grade students studying in a secondary school in Istanbul in the 2020-2021 academic year. There were 16 students in the control group and 16 students in the experimental group. In the control group, the course was taught by using the current curriculum and the Mathematics textbook. The STEAM-focused mandala activity developed in the experimental group was applied and the lecture was supported with the Mathematics textbook. The implementation phase lasted for three weeks and the activity was carried out in this process. The Circle Achievement Test was developed to determine the success levels of secondary school students in circle. During the test development process, validity and reliability studies were carried out. As a result of all analyzes, the results of the 20-question test were analyzed in the SPSS.23 program and the Cronbach'sAlpha reliability coefficient was found to be KR20 0.786 and KR21 0.759. These results show that the developed Circle Achievement Test is valid and reliable, and this test was used in the thesis study. As data collection tools; "Circle Achievement Test" prepared by the researcher for quantitative analysis; "Scientific Creativity Rubric" developed by Barak and Doppelt (2000) and adapted into Turkish by Gülhan (2016), design papers and "Design (Product) Evaluation Rubric" developed by Gülhan (2016) were used for qualitative analysis. Quantitative data obtained from the Circle Achievement Test were analyzed with the SPSS 23.0 package program. As a result, when the academic achievements of the students who followed the STEAM training applied in the experimental group and those who took the course according to the current training program in the control group were compared, a significant positive difference was obtained. In addition, according to the evaluation made with the Scientific Creativity Rubric, it was concluded that creativity levels were also positively affected. In the Fourth Chapter; For the Circle Achievement Test used in the quantitative analysis of the research, the results of statistics, normality analysis, the relationship between the experimental and control groups are given. The success levels of the dependent and independent groups were analyzed with the t-test according to the pre- and post-tests and the answers to the first three problems of the study were found. In the qualitative analysis, Scientific Creativity and Design Evaluation Rubric was used. The fourth sub-problem was answered with the findings obtained by descriptive analysis. It was determined that the students in the experimental group who received STEAM education had an increase in their understanding of the subject, their mathematics achievement levels and their creativity. In the Fifth Chapter; By associating the art dimension of STEAM education with mandala activities, the results obtained regarding the development of students' interest in mathematics, their level of success and scientific creativity are presented. In addition, suggestions were written according to the results obtained after all stages of the research. When the literature is examined, it is seen that there are very few scientific researches carried out by dealing with mathematical topics related to STEAM.Therefore, it is thought that the thesis study will make an important contribution to the literature. Keywords: STEAM, mandala, circle, academic achievement, scientific creativity, quantitative research, qualitative research, mixed research