Can Environmental Education Supported by Augmented Reality (AR) Applications Improve the Environmental Awareness of Primary School Students?

Abstract

It is thought that it would be appropriate to use augmented reality technology, which provides many educational advantages for effective environmental education. This research aims to examine the effect of environmental education using augmented reality (AR) applications on the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of primary school third-grade students towards the environment and to find out the children's views on AR. The case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. The research was carried out with seventeen primary school third-grade students from a public school in the 2021-2022 academic year. Environmental education was given to the selected class with augmented reality applications for six weeks. The data were collected with the ‘Semi-Structured Interview Form’ prepared by the researcher. Content analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data. According to the findings obtained from the interviews; it has been concluded that environmental education using AR applications is effective in the knowledge, attitude, behavior, and environmental awareness of third-grade students towards the environment. In addition to these, in the interviews; it has been determined that students have positive emotions towards AR reality applications; they want to use the applications in other lessons; AR applications facilitate their learning and positively affect their approaches towards living / non-living beings, the environment and environmental problems.