Abstract:

The current research aims to examine the geography projects that were short-listed in the TÜBİTAK 2204-B Secondary School Students Research Projects Competition held in 2019, 2020 and 2021, thematically and methodologically. In this study, the document analysis technique, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the data collection phase. Furthermore, document analysis was used as a data collection tool. Geography project texts that were short-listed in the TÜBİTAK 2204-B Secondary School Students Research Projects Competition, which constitute the data sources, were analyzed by content analysis technique. This study examined 39 project texts that constitute the data sources. According to the thematic analysis, it was determined that the thematic area of Ecological Balance was preferred the most. According to the research results, it has been determined that scientific research steps are not mentioned enough or not included in the methodology of the projects in the field of geography submitted to the TÜBİTAK 2204-B Secondary School Students Research Projects Competition. Therefore, there are methodological deficiencies even in the projects that made it to the Turkey finals. Accordingly, in order to increase the quality of the projects, training on project report writing and scientific research can be organized so that teachers and students can participate in these training programs. Students can be more encouraged to prepare projects. In the project writing workshops in schools, the awareness of counselor teachers can be increased on the topic of following the rules of scientific research stages.

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