SCIENCE TEACHING WITH AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS: STUDENT VIEWS ABOUT ‘SYSTEMS IN OUR BODY’ UNIT

Abstract

Many mobile applications have emerged thanks to the technological developments that have taken place today. One of these applications is the augmented (virtual) reality application used on smartphones and tablets. Some augmented reality applications are being prepared using 4D-technology and transforming the virtual environment into real life. The present research is to investigate the views of the students about the use of augmented reality applications with 4D-technology related to the ‘Systems in Our Body’ unit in our 6th-grade science class. This study was conducted using phenomenological method in the scope of qualitative research. In this study, the participants consisted of nine students who volunteered to participate in this research. The data were obtained from semi-structured interviews. The data of the interviews with seven students were recorded on voice recorder and then the data were transferred to the text. The interview data of two students who did not want to record their interviews were written with pen-paper and transcripted. The analysis of the data was carried out by content analysis using the NVivo 9 program. The findings obtained in this research showed that the result of the augmented reality application was that the systems in our body unit is effective in better understanding, increasing the motivation of the students to science lessons and making the lessons fun.