Effect of STEM-Based 7E Learning Cycle on Concepts Acquisition and Creative Thinking on Temperature and Heat

Temperature and heat are subject matter that is considered difficult by students. The difficulties in the subject matter are caused by lack of acquisition of students' concepts and creative thinking. A solution is needed to overcome student's difficulties by designing appropriate learning model. One of the suitable method which supports students' concepts acquisition and creative thinking is the STEM-based 7E learning cycle. The research objective was to determine the effect of STEM-based 7E learning cycle on concepts acquisition and creative thinking in the topic of temperature and heat. This study used a Preexperimental design with One Group Pretest-Posttest Design. The research subjects were 31 eleventh grade high school students in Batu, Indonesia. The research instruments were concept acquisition test with 0.882 reliability, and creative thinking test with 0.821 reliability. The data were analyzed using paired sample t-test, N-gain, and d-effect size. The results showed that STEM-based 7E learning cycle was able to significantly increase students' concept acquisition and creative thinking, each in medium category. The result of effect size showed that STEM-based 7E learning cycle provided a major impact in the increase of both. For future studies, formative assessment strategy could be embedded into STEM-based 7E learning cycle to gain even higher students' concept acqusition and creative thinking.