The impact of activity-enriched teaching and educational games on the academic success of middle school students in astronomy courses

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of teaching enriched with astronomy activities and educational games on astronomy achievement in the 6th-grade Solar System and Eclipses unit. Fifty-seven students in the 6th grade of a secondary school in Türkiye participated in the study. Although the groups were formed randomly, since the students themselves could not be randomly distributed among the groups, a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups was adopted. The experimental group used a constructivist learning approach and educational games and activities related to the astronomy course. The control group used only the constructivist learning method. While creating the astronomy achievement test as a data collection tool for the research, the achievements of the 6th-grade Solar System and Eclipses Unit were considered. Validity and reliability studies were conducted for the data collection tool, and it was concluded that the test was applicable. The experimental application revealed that including astronomy activities and educational games in science lessons increased the astronomy achievement of 6th-grade students. Based on this result, it can be said that educational games and activities used in science lessons can positively contribute to achievement.