Determining the effect of robotic coding activities designed for STEM education on the attitude of superior talented students against robotics and coding

With the 21st century, the changes in technology, economy and defense have caused great changes in the understanding of education and the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education has been recognized. In line with this understanding, a new education model named STEM has been developed, consisting of the initials of the words "Science", "Technology", "Engineering" and "Mathematics". Having a large part of the skills that students need to acquire in line with 21st century skills and providing a suitable ground for the development of skills related to robotics and coding, which are included in 21st century skills, STEM has turned into an important education understanding that has made a name for itself in a short time. This research was conducted with gifted students who were studying in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades at the Malatya Science and Art Center affiliated to the Malatya Provincial Directorate of National Education in the 2019-2020 academic year and participated in the Young Engineer Brains 3 event with STEM (N = 34) was carried out. The study aimed to observe the effect of robotic coding activities designed for STEM education on the attitude of gifted students towards robotics and coding. Mixed method was used in the study. The design of the study consists of a single group pre-test post-test experimental design from quantitative research approaches and a case study design from qualitative research approaches. The research was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, robotic coding activities designed in accordance with STEM education were planned and in the second stage, the "Robotic Attitude Scale for Middle School Students" and the "Attitude Scale for Middle School Students" were applied to gifted students (N = 34) who participated in the Young Engineer Brains 3 activity with STEM. In addition to scales, data were collected using "Information Books" and "Product Development Notebooks", "Student Diaries" and "Personal Information Form" in this study. As a result of the research, it was determined that students had positive opinions about STEM and it was determined that robotic coding activities designed in accordance with STEM education positively contributed to students' attitude towards robotics and coding.