Investigation of scientific creativity levels of elementary school students who enrolled in a STEM program

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the scientific creativity levels of second, third and fourth gradestudents who enrolled in a STEM course for an entire academic year. The sample consisted of 85elementary school students in two private schools in Antalya, Turkey. "Scientific Creativity Test" and"Student Demographic Questionnaire" were the instruments used in the study. Findings revealed that thescientific creativity level of the students showed a statistically significant difference with respect to theirgrade level. No significant differences were observed based for other variables (gender, number ofsiblings, parental occupation, favorite subject, the most successful subject, future occupation). In thispaper, selected student responses will be presented together with a comparison of the existing curriculaand the implemented STEM curriculum as well as a discussion of the findings. The study has indicatedthat the implemented STEM program positively affected scientific creativity of the students.