The Effects of Educational Robotics Activities on Students' Attitudes towards STEM and ICT Courses

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of robotics design with Arduino on students' attitudes towards ICT courses and STEM. In this context, robotics design activities with Arduino were conducted with an experimental group, while the current IT curriculum was applied to a control group. The study lasted for a period of 12 weeks and was conducted with 53 middle school students. The Information & Communication Technologies Course Attitude Scale (ICTCAS) and STEM Attitude Scale (SAS) were used as data collection tools. The study's findings revealed that robotics design activities with Arduino increased the students' attitudes towards engineering and technology in the context of STEM and ICT courses. Additionally, the participating students supported the use of robotics activities in their ICT course, and they reportedly found the activities to be fun, interesting, different, difficult, complex, and time-consuming. During the first weeks of the study, the students were excited, very curious, interested, enthusiastic, worried, and hesitant to participate in the activities and avoided them. However, in the subsequent weeks, they gained practical experience related to the activities and took on a more active role in the class.