Our STEM SURVIVOR Project aims to increase our students’ interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and to provide a more qualitative integration of STEM disciplines. In doing so, it uses stories written specifically for our project. Gecko, the hero of our stories, which is the starting point of our project, is a small lizard who loves to explore. He and other contestants came from all over the world and competed in seven regions of our beautiful Anatolia. They tried to win the race by overcoming the difficult conditions that awaited them in each region. Now it’s the time to participate in a competition in honour of STEM Discovery Week, attended by all European friends. Let’s see what little Gecko will do.

In this study, a problem was first identified. In order to solve the determined problem, first of all, the task distribution was made among the teachers. According to this task sharing, the problem situation was presented to the students and online competition was organized. During the competition, all teachers became observers.

Problem Situation

Gecko had heard of the STEM Discovery Week campaign all over Europe. Gecko also wanted to organize his own contest. How many floors can a tower be built using only plastic pots and plates? In just three minutes! Let’s see what happened in this competition.

Race and Win

What an exciting competition it was. 75 students built their towers in 3 minutes, using only cups and plates. In our competition, our student Nurbanu K. came in first with its 18-storey tower. All the competition continued online. Our aim in this competition was to achieve the best result with the same materials in a limited time.

https://youtu.be/-A9vomDPo58

Student Evaluation Processes

The competition was coordinated by Fatma Güler. Our teacher Fatma Akgül made the online evaluation of the competition. The evaluation of the competition gave the children the opportunity to see their mistakes. Later, our Ferai Aygel teacher evaluated the process with a questionnaire and presented us with her tests.

To make the job even more fun, our teacher Esra Sarıahmet prepared a quiz about the competition. Immediately afterwards, our teacher Hava Topbaş presented the results of the competition with a slide. To watch, please see the video link above.

Teacher Evaluation Processes

During the teacher collaboration process of our contest, our teacher Hatice Çanakçı organized an online chat activity. Our teacher, Handan Argun, organized an online study with the participation of teachers, parents and students, and held an informative meeting on STEM fields. This work has raised a lot of awareness.

In the final stage of our study, our teacher Gülsüm Tiryaki Bayram held an online teacher meeting and evaluated our STEM Discovery Week studies. You can follow the whole working process on our blog.

At the end of the competition, video recordings were watched and the winner was determined. Later, questionnaires, quizzes and self-evaluation studies were conducted with the students who participated in the competition. A separate teacher has been assigned for each activity.

All products that emerged after the student evaluations were presented with a slide show. They were able to express their opinions by evaluating the online chat room for the participating teachers. In the continuation of this study, the parents of the students who participated in the competition were given online training on STEM issues. In the last stage, the study was completed with online teacher training.