Primary school students studying in rural areas in Türkiye are among the disadvantaged groups in the context of the principle of equality of opportunity in education. It is thought that providing STEM education to these students plays an important role in providing them with twenty first century skills that are necessary for the age. However, there are not enough studies in the literature on the effectiveness of STEM education for rural students. In this context this research aims to reveal the effect of STEM activities designed according to the 5E learning model by integrating the cooperative learning model in the context of social learning theory on the twenty-first century skills of rural primary school students. The 5E learning model provides a guide for preparing lesson plans in line with the STEM approach because it emphasizes problem-solving skills, is suitable for engineering design processes, and allows the information presented in the course to be associated with daily life. The study was designed according to the time series design. In time series design, more than two measurements are made to determine the change that occurs as a result of the experimental process. According to the measurement data obtained, the direction of the change that occurs in the experimental process is tried to be determined. The study group of the research consists of 19 primary school students studying in a rural school. The "twenty first Century Renewal and Learning Skills" scale was used as a data collection tool. Repeated measures Anova test was used to analyze the research data. As a result of the research, it was concluded that STEM activities had a significant positive effect on the twenty first century skills of rural primary school students. In line with the findings obtained as a result of the research, it can be stated that STEM activities can be effective in developing twenty first century skills of students in rural areas. The important limitation of the study is the use of a one- group experimental design. It is recommended to conduct experimental studies in which the control group is included in future research. © 2025 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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