TEACHING ABSTRACT SUBJECTS AND CONCEPTS WITH 3D ANIMATIONS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

FEN EĞİTİMİNDE 3D ANİMAYONLAR İLE SOYUT KONU VE KAVRAMLARIN ÖĞRETİLMESİ

Abstract

The continuous progress of Information Technologies has lied behind it an indispensable part of our education system to be used in all fields of our life. By integrating these technologies into the education system, the significant problems of education and training can be solved and made more effective and productive. This study focuses on finding an answer the questions of how animations that developed with 3D technologies can be used to teach concepts and subjects that are abstract and difficult to learn in science education and how these materials will help students succeed in learning. For this aim, for instance; some abstract subjects and concepts related to "Change of Matter" in the 5th grade Science and Technology course curriculum have been selected and teaching animations have been developed by using 3DSMax from 3D Modeling Technologies and Torque3D from game development technologies. In a computer-based practice that lasted for three-hour with the participation of 80 students from 5th grade of Secondary school; melting, freezing, boiling, evaporation, condensation, sublimation, frost recovery, expansion and shrinkage events were taught by using developed 3D animations. Before application, the students’ existing knowledge about matter change topic and its concepts were determined via a pretest and after applying learning with 3D animations, their knowledge levels were re-measured by posttest. While the number of questions students answered correctly in the pretest was 7, the correct number of responses in the posttest rose to 10. Whether these results were statistically different from each other or not was examined by t-test and the results obtained showed that with the (T = -11,353; p <0,05) 3D animations teaching increases the learning performance significantly.The continuous progress of Information Technologies has lied behind it an indispensable part of our education system to be used in all fields of our life. By integrating these technologies into the education system, the significant problems of education and training can be solved and made more effective and productive. One of the problems that need to be resolved is that the methods and techniques used in the teaching of topics and concepts in Science and Technology courses can not be selected in accordance with the topic. The Science and Technology course is based on teaching a lot of information that is interwoven with real life. However, in general, it is difficult to reach the desired targets in science teaching, because of the fact that abstract, difficult to understand subjects and concepts cannot be visualized in a laboratory environment, and each school has no science laboratories or efficient use. This study focuses on finding an answer to the question of how animations that developed with 3D technologies can be used to teach concepts and subjects that are abstract and difficult to learn in science education and How do these materials affect students' learning outcomes? For this purpose, the topic of change of the substance in the 5th-grade curriculum of secondary school has been chosen. The reasons for choosing this topic are; its consisting of everyday events and concepts used in everyday life, there existing abstract events and concepts that are difficult to understand in the subject and the subject’s being taught abstractly in the classroom, and as a result of these reasons the learning levels of the students remain low. Concepts related to "Change of Matter"(melting, freezing, boiling, evaporation, condensation, sublimation, frost recovery, expansion and shrinkage) events have been selected and teaching animations have been developed by using 3DSMax from 3D Modeling Technologies and Torque3D from game development technologies. Developed 3D animations have been prepared according to the curriculum of MEB. In a computer-based practice that lasted for three-hour with the participation of 80 students from 5th grade of Secondary school, the topic “Change of Matter” was tried to be taught by using animations. At the beginning of the application, firstly, students who participated in the application were informed about the game environment where 3D animations would be watched and how to use it.Students were then pre-tested with 15 questions. Later on, students learned how to reduce the heat by performing the task of collecting ice masses in the game environment and watched how the events of freezing, condensation, deposition, shrinkage occurred. Likewise, the students learned the events of Melting, Boiling, Sublimation, and Expansion with animations by increasing the heat by performing the task of gathering the woods. After all animation related to teaching was observed, pre-test questions applied to all students at the beginning were re-applied as posttest. Thus, the increase in the learning performance of the students, in other words, an attempt was made to show how the implementation contributed to the existing knowledge levels of the students. In this study, which investigated the effect of the use of 3D animation on the learning success in the teaching of "Change of Matter in the Science and Technology course", especially the students who learned this topic previously were used. As the model of the study, "Single group pre-test-post-test" was determined and subject success test was used for data collection. In the single group pre-test-post-test model, the independent variable is applied and both pre-experiment (pre-test) and post-experiment (post-test) measurements are taken. (Karasar, 2012; Fraenkel, Wallen ve Hyun, 2012). The group that made our sample in our pre-test study, It has been determined that the current learning performance of "Change of Matter" is 47%. Later, when the same subject was taught with 3D animations, it was seen that learning performance reached 67%. In the analysis of the data obtained from the research, "ttest" which is dependent on parametric tests and SPSS statistical analysis

Özet

Bilişim Teknolojilerinin sürekli gelişim göstermesi yaşamımızın her alanında kullanılmasına, eğitim sistemimizin de ayrılmaz bir parçası haline gelmesine neden olmuştur. Bu teknolojilerin eğitim sistemine entegre edilmesiyle eğitim ve öğretimin önemli sorunları çözülerek daha etkin ve verimli bir hale getirilebilir. Bu çalışmada Fen eğitiminde soyut ve öğrenilmesi zor olan kavram ve konuların öğretilmesi için 3D teknolojileri ile geliştirilen animasyonlar nasıl kullanılabilir ve bu materyaller öğrencilerin öğrenme başarılarını nasıl etkiler? Sorusuna cevap bulunmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu amaçla örnek olarak 5.sınıf Fen ve Teknoloji dersi müfredatında yer alan "Maddenin Değişimi" konusuna ait bazı soyut konu ve kavramlar seçilmiş ve 3D Modelleme teknolojilerinden 3DsMax ve oyun geliştirme teknolojilerinden Torque3D kullanılarak öğretim animasyonları geliştirilmiştir. Ortaokul 5. sınıftan 80 öğrencinin katılımıyla bilgisayar başında yapılan üç saatlik uygulamada Erime, Donma, Kaynama, Buharlaşma, Yoğuşma, Süblimleşme, Kırağılaşma, Genleşme ve Büzülme olayları geliştirilen 3D animasyonlar kullanılarak öğretilmiştir. Öğrencilerin uygulama öncesi kavramlar ve konuyla ilgili mevcut bilgileri ön test ile tespit edilmiş ve 3D animasyonlarla öğrenme uygulamasından sonra bilgi düzeyleri son test ile yeniden ölçülmüştür. Öğrencilerin ön testte doğru olarak cevapladıkları ortalama soru sayısı 7 iken uygulama sonrası son testte cevapladıkları ortalama doğru sayısı 10'a yükselmiştir. Bu sonuçların birbirinden istatistiksel olarak farklı olup olmadığı t testi yapılarak incelenmiş ve elde edilen sonuçlar (t= 11,353; p<0,05) 3D animasyonlarla öğretimin öğrenme performansını anlamlı düzeyde arttırdığını göstermiştir