Pre-service Teachers' Environmental Literacy: The Role of STEM-Based Environmental Education with Microcontrollers

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of STEM-based environmental education in which microcontroller sets are integrated on pre-service teachers' environmental literacy. The study was carried out with a one-group pretest-posttest weak experimental design. The sample of the study consisted of 31 pre-service teachers attending biology, science, and chemistry education departments. As the data collection tool, the environmental literacy scale including knowledge, attitude, behaviour and awareness dimensions was applied to the sample group as a pre-test and post-test. The study lasted for 11 weeks in total, including training on microcontroller sets, STEM-based environmental education and application of tests. During the environmental education, the participants were divided into groups of 4-5 and the studies were carried out with the station technique. In the stations, a research problem about air, water, soil, light and noise pollution was posed to the participants. They were expected to propose a solution using microcontroller sets. At the end of the research, a statistically significant difference was determined between the pre-test and post-test scores of the pre-service teachers from the environmental literacy scale. Accordingly, it was concluded that STEM-based environmental education improved pre-service teachers' environmental literacy. Based on these results, it is recommended that experimental/ quasi-experimental studies investigating the effectiveness of STEM-based environmental education and studies determining the advantages and disadvantages of STEM based environmental education using microcontroller sets should be carried out.