Investigation of the effects of STEM activities on migrant students' belonging to school and attitudes

In this study, the investigation of the effects of STEM activities on the belonging and attitudes of the seventh grade refugee students towards the school was examined. The mixed method was used in the research. The sample of study consists of 32 Syrian refugee students studying in a 7 th grade in a public secondary school in the province of Gaziantep in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 acdemic year. Eight activities in the study were carried out in a total of 10 weeks in Science Applications course. "School Attachment Scale for Children and Adolescents and School Attitude Scale" pretest and posttest were applied. In addition, STEM activities were held to describe the belonging and attitudes of refugee students towards the school. "STEM Education Reflective Journal Form, STEM Education Interview Form and Teacher Interview Form" were used to determine the effect of STEM activities. In the analysis of the quantitative dataobtained in the research, SPSS package program was used and in the analysis of qualitative data, content analysis was used. The quantitative data results obtained were among the pretest-posttest scores; "School Attachment Scale for Children and Adolescents" was found to be significantly different overall. In the Attitude Scale towards School Scale, there was a significant difference in the sub-dimension of "School as Personal Development Disability". As a result; STEM activities have contributed positively to the development of Syrian refugee students and students learn by having fun while doing activities. It was concluded that they learned to do group work, contribute to communication skills, a sense of curiosity and improved their attitude towards the lesson and the teacher.