An Introduction of a STEM Activity with Elementary Science and Mathematics Teachers

STEM is an educational approach with the purpose of getting students do interdisciplinary activities, think systematically, solve problems, and become productive and creative in an instructional program in which science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are integrated. Since Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is a new approach for the education system of Turkey; first of all, pre-service and in-service teachers should have enough competency in order to integrate this approach to our education system. Therefore, the purpose of the study is introduction of a STEM activity to pre-service elementary science and mathematics teachers. The participants of the study were 30 pre-service elementary science teachers and 38 pre-service elementary mathematics teachers in a governmental university in Turkey in 2016-2017 academic calendar. In the scope of the study, pre-service teachers were given a brief introduction on STEM and participate to an activity in order to understand this approach better. Since pre-service teachers had had any education related to STEM, the purpose of the introduction within the study was STEM and its use in the classroom. The introduction and activity will be presented in this study. After the STEM activity, pre-service teachers was asked about their positive or negative ideas and possible suggestions related to the activity. Then, the answers of pre-service teachers were investigated by the use of content analysis of qualitative data analysis methods. According to the results, most of the pre-service teachers said that the activity was entertaining, instructive, and productive. Moreover, pre-service teachers suggested that the number of the participants might be decreased and the duration of the activity might be used effectively in order to revise the activity.