The investigation of the effect of the activities designed by three dimensional printer technology on the teaching of the systems in our body unit

Nowadays, technology is inevitable. This rapid progress affects not only every area of life, but also the field of education. The fact that technology has a great importance especially in the field of science and the fact that software-based technologies attract great attention makes it possible to carry out new studies in this field. Robotics coding, software and three-dimensional printers are some of these areas. As a result of the literature review on the subject area, there are not enough studies about three dimensional printers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the effects of the activities designed with three-dimensional printer technology on the teaching of sixth grade the systems in our body unit and the opinions of the students about this technology. For this purpose, the study was carried out with 60 students studying in sixth grade of a state middle school in the province of Kastamonu in the first semester of 2018-2019 academic year. There are 30 students in randomly determined experimental and control groups. In this study, mixed research design, which includes quantitative and qualitative research designs, was used. In order to determine the effect of the activities designed with three-dimensional printer technology on the students' academic success, the quasi-experimental model with pre-test post-test control group was used. In addition, only group study observation form and semi-structured interview form was used in order to determine the opinions of only the students in the experimental group about the activities developed with three-dimensional printer technology. While the related unit topics were explained to the students in the experimental group by supporting the activities developed with three-dimensional printer technology, the students in the control group were explained according to the current program. As a data collection tools; The Systems in Our Body Unit Achievement Test (SOBUAT), Group Study Observation Form (GSOF) for the purpose of observing the activities carried out by the students in the experimental group for six weeks and evaluating the whole process from start to finish during the activity development process and only Semi-Structured Interview Form (SSIF) was applied to the students in the experimental group. Quantitative data obtained from the study were analyzed with SPSS program. In order to determine the significance of the difference between the pre-test and post-test achievement test scores obtained from the experimental and control groups, the t-test was used and the findings were interpreted. As a result of the analysis of the data, it was found that there was a significant difference in the favor of the students in the experimental group, in which the courses supported by the activities developed with three-dimensional printer technology, in comparison with the academic achievements of the students in the control group, in which the courses were processed according to the current program. In this study, the students of experimental group did not perform their activities individually but as a group. In group work, each student is expected to participate actively in the practices. In order to measure the criteria such as, to communicate with each other, their harmony, cooperation, skills, use time effectively and so on, the group study observation form was used at the end of each week application and the researcher gave the evaluation score at the end of each course considering the evaluation criteria in this form. While the evaluation score of the students in the experimental group was low during in the first weeks, the evaluation score increased in recent weeks. It was effective for students to enjoy the activities developed with three-dimensional printer technology, to love and participate in the course. Content analysis of semi-structured interview data only with 9 students from the experimental group was conducted and it was determined that the lessons supported by activities developed with three-dimensional printer technology were fun and active. In addition, the students of the experimental group stated that they understood the subjects better, the activities improved their imagination and the lessons were not boring. In order to see the effect of the activities developed with three-dimensional printer technology on science teaching, it is recommended to conduct research on different units of science course and to establish a printing room where three-dimensional printers can be used in schools.