Association of Mechanical Clock Elements with STEM Disciplines and Energy Conversion

This research is intended for associating STEM disciplines and kinetic-potential energy conversion with the mechanical clock elements, with the purpose of informing 7th grade students about STEM and energy conversion. Throughout the qualitative research period, Mechanical clock components were visually presented to the students and they designed their own energy-conversion-operated mechanical clocks. In the end of the task, the students were asked for delivering their opinions about mechanical clock- STEM disciplines and mechanical clock-energy conversions which they observed during the process. The findings and the results obtained from the task are presented as tables and graphics. According to the Mechanical Clock-STEM (MCS) Association and Task Assessment Rubric (TAR), it has been observed that there were almost completely positive (90 %) results for both of the associations mentioned above. When it came to associating Mechanical Clock with the Energy Conversion (MCEC), while some of the questions in the pretest were answered by none of the students, there was an increase about 50 % in the posttest for all of those questions. In addition, the analysis of the interviews was shown that the task positively affected understanding Energy conversion and the relation between STEM disciplines.