Impacts of the project based (PBL) science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education on academic achievement and career interests of vocational high school students

The aim of this study is to determine effects of the Project-Based (PBL) STEM (Science Technology, Engineering Mathematics) education on academic achievements and career interests of vocational high school students. Pretest-posttest design, one group of pre-trial model, was used in the study. The participants of the research consisted of 18 students in eleventh-grade at the furniture department of vocational high school. Quantitative data collection tools were used to gather the data for the study. “STEM Achievement Test” and “STEM Career Interest Scale” were applied to the students as pretest and posttest. The data obtained from the achievement test and carrier interest test were analyzed by using non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test with SPSS 16.0 software. It was found at the end of the study that, students improved significantly their academic achievement in the furniture design course and developed career interests in a positive direction.