The effect of educational games developed for the third grade science course five sense unit on the academic success of students

This study was conducted to determine the effects of the educational game method technique used in the teaching of the sensory organs and their functions/five senses in the "Living Things and Life" unit in the 3rd grade science course curriculum on the academic achievement of the 3rd grade students and to determine the students' views on the teaching process with games. A quasi-experimental design was used in this study. A quasi-experimental design with pretest posttest control group, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in order to examine the effects of educational games used in the coursework process on the academic success of students. The phenomenology method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used to determine the students' views on the educational games used in the research. The research consists of 120 3rd grade students studying in two different public schools in Şanlıurfa. While 60 of these students form the experimental group, 60 of them form the control group. In the spring term of the 2020-2021 academic year, the subject of "Our Five Senses" in the 3rd grade science program was selected and six lesson hours and the pre-test-post-tests applied for two weeks were carried out in a total of five weeks within the semi-structured interview form. In the classes selected as the experimental group, the teaching of the subject of our five senses was carried out with educational games, and in the classes selected as the control group, the teaching of the subject of our five senses was carried out in accordance with the current curriculum. Academic Achievement Test and semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools in the research. Data were analyzed using t-test and content analysis. In the context of the results obtained, it is seen that the achievement scores of the groups increased in both the trainings made with the game teaching method and the current curriculum in the teaching of the subject of our five senses, and a statistically significant difference emerged. However, when the difference between the average of the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental and control group students regarding the Academic Achievement Test was examined, it was determined that the difference between the mean of the experimental group and the mean of the control group created a significant difference. Regarding the subject of our five senses, it was concluded that the educational teaching methods applied to the experimental group were more effective in increasing the success of the students compared to the existing teaching methods applied to the control group. By examining the results of the interview form applied after the research, besides the increase in the academic success of the experimental group, whose training was done through educational games, their interest in the lesson became positive. It has been observed that students, who are bored with the lesson and lose interest during the teaching of the targeted acquisitions, can learn the targeted acquisitions thanks to the educational games, and the students provide active participation. Educational games have made lessons more understandable, effective and productive for students. Thus, through educational games, students gained the opportunity to realize their own learning, and they learned in a fun way in cooperation, sharing, cooperation and effective communication with their friends. It is recommended to be used in the education-teaching process, as the teaching with educational games increases the interest and motivation of the students and provides active participation in a fun learning environment.