INCREASING THE LEARNING INTEREST OF BIOLOGY EDUCATION STUDENTS AT ABULYATAMA UNIVERSITY USING SMARTPHONE MICROSCOPES-STEM

Abstract

The limitation of specialized laboratories for biology education poses a problem for students' interest in learning. Students have to use the university's integrated laboratory, resulting in suboptimal practical work, and not all biology practical needs are available. Smartphone microscopes are used as an alternative to this constraint. The objective of this research is to determine the enhancement of STEM-based smartphone microscopes on the interest in learning of Biology Education students at Abulyatama University. This type of research employs a quasi-experimental design with a one-group pretest-posttest approach. The sample in this research consisted of 31 participants determined by purposive sampling technique. The data collection technique in this study utilized a questionnaire which was analyzed using percentage test and N-Gain test. The results obtained show that 1) The interest in learning among students using smartphone microscopes is 59.65% (sufficiently interested); 2) There is an increase in learning interest with an N-Gain value of 0.75 (high). Thus, it can be concluded that learning using smartphone microscopes based on STEM can enhance the learning interest of Biology Education students at Abulyatama University.