THE EFFECT OF STEM ACTIVITIES ON THE SCIENTIFIC CREATIVITY AND ACADEMIC SUCCESS OF STUDENTS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of Lego based STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) activities on the scientific creativity and academic success of middle-school 6th grade students. In the study, the semi experimental research method which is one of the experimental research methods was used. The study was carried out at a state middle-school in the spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. At the school in which the study was carried out, the students were applied the Scientific Creativity Scale (SCS) and the Academic Success Tests. A total of 85 students participated in the study. In the study group, 29 students were separated as the control group, 28 students as experimental group-1 and 28 students as experimental group-2 by the researcher. The application lasted for 7 weeks. In the experiment groups, the physical sciences lessons were taught together with the Lego based STEM activities. In the study, scientific creativity scale and Force and Motion Academic Success Test (FMAST), Properties of Matter Academic Success Test (CMAST), Animals Academic Success Test (AAST) and Sound Academic Success Test (SAST) were used. Whether the pretest-posttest difference related to the groups displayed normal distribution was checked with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. In scales and tests in which it was not possible to achieve normalcy assumption, the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test and in those in which it was possible toachieve normalcy assumption, the Paired Samples T test was done. In the comparison of the groups’ posttests, the Single Factor Variance Analysis (ANOVA) was carried out. As a result of the study, a significance difference was found in favor of experiment group-1 in the originality dimensions related to SCS. In the analysis of the academic success tests, a significant difference was not found only in the posttest scores related to CMAST. In the posttest results of FMAST, AAST and SAST, a significant difference was found in favor of experiment group 1. In addition, in the analysis in which the posttest scores of the groups related AASTwere compared, a significant difference was found in favor of the experiment groups. As a result of the study, it was determined that the scientific creativity of the students in the experiment groups in which Lego based STEM activities were carried out developed and their academic success increased.