The effect of Arduino applications developed for the Turkish Century Education Model on the academic success and attitudes of students: Solar and Lunar Eclipses

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of activities carried out with robotic coding supported Arduino applications on students' academic success, attitudes towards robotic coding and technology, and student opinions about the activities in the teaching of outputs including the subject of Solar and Lunar Eclipses of the 6th grade developed for the Turkey Century Education Model. A mixed method was used in the research, in which qualitative and quantitative research methods were used together. A quasi-experimental design with a "pre-test-post-test control group" was applied as the quantitative research method. A structured interview form was applied in the qualitative part. The study group consists of a total of 58 sixth grade students, 29 experimental and 29 control, studying in a provincial central secondary school in the Western Black Sea region in the 2024-2025 academic year. The course will be taught with robotic coding supported Arduino applications activities in the experimental group, and in accordance with the current curriculum in the control group. Before and after the application, "Solar and Lunar Eclipse Achievement Test", "Robotic Coding Attitude Scale" and "Attitude Towards Technology Scale" were applied to both groups as pre-test and post-test. After the activities carried out on the experimental group students during the research, "Arduino Course Diary Form" was applied as a structured interview form. The quantitative data obtained in the study were analyzed with IBM SPSS 30. package program. The qualitative data were analyzed with the content analysis technique. As a result of the analysis of the obtained data, no significant difference was found between the academic success of the experimental and control groups. However, their attitudes towards robotic coding showed a significant difference in favor of the experimental group. There was no significant difference between the groups in their attitudes towards technology. As a result of the analysis of the interviews conducted in the experimental group, it was concluded that the students found robotic coding-supported Arduino applications entertaining, they liked Arduino, they felt happy, excited, knowledgeable, experienced, they learned the subject with these applications and it was effective in their career choices.