Abstract
This study investigates the impact of daily-life oriented project-based learning (PBL) on the conceptual understanding of 5th grade students in the Matter and Change unit. The study was conducted with 80 5th grade students from a public primary school in Istanbul, Turkey. The experimental group received daily-life oriented PBL activities, while the control group received traditional instruction. A mixed-methods approach was employed, with a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design for the quantitative segment and open-ended questions for the qualitative aspect. The Conceptual Comprehension Test was used to measure the students' conceptual understanding before and after the intervention. The study found a significant difference between the scores of the groups from the conceptual understanding pre-test and conceptual understanding post-test in favor of the post-test. The study also found a decrease in misconceptions and an increase in sound understanding of concepts such as "heat exchange," "boiling point," "expansion," "contraction," and "evaporation" in the experimental group. The study suggests that PBL activities aligned with key concepts and emphasizing connections between daily life and subject achievements can enhance students' learning outcomes. The study provides practical implications for educators, emphasizing the importance of pedagogical approaches that prioritize student-centered, inquiry-based learning.