Determination of the effects of STEM activities on STEM awareness, attitudes and opinions of prospective science teachers

The aim of this research is to determine the pre-service science teachers' awareness, attitudes and opinions about STEM. In this research, mixed research method was adopted. In the quantitative dimension of the study, pre-test and post-test were used as a single group experimental design and in the qualitative dimension, case study was adopted. One sample t-test was used for the analysis of quantitative data, and content analysis and descriptive analysis were used for the qualitative data analysis. The research was carried out in the fall semester of 2018-2019 academic year. 34 prospective science teachers participated in the study. STEM Attitude Scale (STÖ), STEM Awareness Scale (STÖ) and STEM Opinion Form (SGF) were used as data collection instruments. The application lasted for 8 weeks. During this period, prospective teachers received STEM training and developed STEM activities. During the process, pre-service teachers developed 7 STEM activities. According to the results of the analyzes, a significant difference was reached in favor of the post-test in the STEM's Attitudes and Awareness regarding the pre-test and post-test results. As a result, it is seen that the pre-service teachers who have STEM training and develop STEM activities have a positive attitude towards STEM and its sub-dimensions and their awareness about STEM has increased. However, it was seen that there was an acceptable positive change in the opinions of prospective teachers about STEM after STEM applications. This study includes prospective science teachers. A similar research can be conducted with prospective teachers from different branches and related results can be examined in terms of different variables such as gender and grade level. Keywords: STEM training, STEM activities, STEM Attitude, STEM awareness, STEM opinion, STEM