STEM ACTIVITIES WITH ROBOTIC CODING; THE EFFECT ON AWARENESS OF TEACHER CANDIDATES REGARDING ITS USE IN SCIENCE LESSONS

STEM education, which focuses on improving students' 21st century skills, aims to increase interest in engineering professions that have a very important place in the future of the world. Due to continuous innovation in technologies, it is critical to provide STEM and robotics coding training to students. Knowing the content of studies in our country related to STEM is of great importance for awareness of its use in science course. The aim of this study is to investigatethe effect of robotics coding STEM activities on teacher candidates ' awareness of their use in science course. 37 science teacher candidates participated in the 12-week study. Qualitative research method was used in this study. Qualitative data was taken from the field notes and semi-structured interview. As part of STEM activities, it is aimed to teach teacher candidates Robotics Coding. In the activities, Arduino IDE, Fritzing programs were taught. Robotics coding STEM activities have had a positive impact on teacher candidates. Teacher candidates reported that activities increased their interest and attitude to science, and that they were instructive, fun, and useful. Teacher candidates expressed that robotics coding activities integrated into education system enabled making learning permanent