EFFECTS OF ENGINEERING DESIGN-BASED STEM APPROACH ON STUDENTS' CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING, ENGINEERING DESIGN PERFORMANCE, AND SCIENTIFIC CREATIVITY

PurposeThis study investigates a novel educational strategy in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching that integrates the engineering design process (EDP) as a framework. The strategy aims to help teachers explain STEM concepts in a simplified way. We employed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology to enable a systematic review that evaluated the effectiveness of this approach in improving both teaching and learning in STEM subjects.Design/methodology/approachIn order to fulfill the objectives of the review, key data were extracted from each of the 400 articles that were reviewed from three databases: Scopus, ProQuest Central and EBSCO. Two types of analysis were conducted, namely descriptive analysis and literature classification.FindingsThis systematic review analyzed 44 articles on the EDP, focusing on 18 detailed studies mainly from ProQuest, SCOPUS and EBSCO. It revealed a limited focus on gender’s impact on EDP and a trend toward interdisciplinary use and integrated research approaches. The study underscores the need for further exploration of demographic influences and preparation programs in EDP across various disciplines, aiming to inform future research and educational policies.Originality/valueThe study’s value lies in its comprehensive assessment of engineering design (ED) research over the past decade, serving as a key reference point. It highlights progress in the field, consolidates findings and provides insights into the field’s evolution, guiding future research directions in ED.

PurposeCommunity-engaged partnerships have the ability to combine expertise and resources to enhance the local STEM learning ecosystem, by engaging the actors in communities that can enhance students' experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Texas Tech University (TTU) and Lubbock Independent School District (LISD) have partnered to coordinate an annual STEM Challenge to encourage STEM learning and interest among local middle grade students. Each summer, teams of (three to four) students from ten LISD middle schools participate in a week-long engineering design challenge, facilitated by TTU undergraduate mentors and their teachers, structured by the Engineering Design Process (EDP).Design/methodology/approachQuantitative (survey) and qualitative (open-ended responses) data from two years of student glider and hovercraft projects offer insight into how 66 students developed STEM knowledge and leveraged 21st-century skills to accomplish a shared aim (design challenge).FindingsFindings suggest growth in students' 21st-century skills, most among underrepresented (racial, ethnic and gender minority) groups. Data from year one (2018) informed year two (2019) in both programming and the research, including enhanced training for mentors and a deeper exploration of students' experiences during each stage of the EDP during the STEM challenge.Originality/valueSignificant and salient findings are discussed along with recommendations for both programmatic and methodological improvements for year three (2020). This study provides insight into how to structure similar community-engaged partnerships in enhancing the community STEM ecosystem through collaborative STEM experiences for diverse, younger learners.

Background Many stakeholders recognise the importance of integrated STEM education in nurturing 21st century skills but little consideration has been given to how scientific creativity can be fostered through this approach among young learners. Purpose and Methods The study describes the classroom experience of incorporating three authentic design-based STEM projects (1. Development of a Disinfection Device, 2. Building an Intelligent Transportation Model, and 3. Design an Ecologically Smart Pond) of grades five and six primary students and illustrates how the activities integrated different STEM disciplines. Descriptions of the projects’ three design-based integrated activities, lasting 12–16 weeks, were developed by three primary STEM teachers from three different schools in Macau, each of whom had at least two years of experience in implementing STEM learning. This is a mixed method research where semi-structured interviews with the teachers revealed how they fostered students’ scientific creativity through design and how the incorporation of the design process stimulated their scientific creativity. The effects of the activities on scientific creativity development, on the other hands, were quantitatively compared for 120 students who participated in STEM projects and a control group of 120 students who were not from the three schools. Result The findings revealed that teachers foster scientific creativity of students throughout the design process and students who participated in the project exhibited significantly higher scientific creativity, particularly in dimensions related to design. Conclusion Hence, the engineering design process is an effective instructional approach for supporting cross-disciplinary STEM learning in primary grades as well as nurturing scientific inquiry and fostering students’ scientific creativity.

From the abstract of the whole treatise preceeding Part 1 of this paper (J. Eng. Des., 2000, vol. 11, no. 4, 377‐397) we recall that a stratification for the context of engineering design science was constructed, consisting of 5 levels, viz. general epistemology, engineering design epistemology, engineering design science, engineering design methodics and engineering design practice. The levels of general epistemology and of engineering design epistemology were briefly discussed, and a start was made in discussing the level of engineering design science proper, which would subsequently address I: The action subject of engineering design , II: The action object of engineering design, III: The action process of engineering design, and IV: Engineering design ontology. Part 1 ended with the discussion of 'The action subject of engineering design', so consequently Part 2 starts with discussing 'The action object of engineering design'. The next item, 'The engineering design process' is discussed from two aspects, viz. 'Engineering design phenomenology' and 'Engineering design methodology'. This item, 'The engineering design process' clearly forms the kernel of the paper. After two short paragraphs on 'Engineering design ontology' (belonging to engineering design science) and 'Engineering design methodics' (the tool kit of the engineering designer, but as such not belonging to engineering design science), the paper ends with a logical analysis of the relation between engineering design science and natural science, for which the metaphor of a Siamese Twin clearly presents itself.

Integrating engineering design into K-12 curricula is increasingly important as engineering has been incorporated into many STEM education standards. However, the ill-structured and open-ended nature of engineering design makes it difficult for an instructor to keep track of the design processes of all students simultaneously and provide personalized feedback on a timely basis. This study proposes a Bayesian network model to dynamically and automatically assess students’ engagement with engineering design tasks and to support formative feedback. Specifically, we applied a Bayesian network to 111 ninth-grade students’ process data logged by a computer-aided design software program that students used to solve an engineering design challenge. Evidence was extracted from the log files and fed into the Bayesian network to perform inferential reasoning and provide a barometer of their performance in the form of posterior probabilities. Results showed that the Bayesian network model was competent at predicting a student’s task performance. It performed well in both identifying students of a particular group (recall) and ensuring identified students were correctly labeled (precision). This study also suggests that Bayesian networks can be used to pinpoint a student’s strengths and weaknesses for applying relevant science knowledge to engineering design tasks. Future work of implementing this tool within the computer-aided design software will provide instructors a powerful tool to facilitate engineering design through automatically generating personalized feedback to students in real time.

This research aims to examine the effect of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) supported research-inquiry-based learning approach on the scientific creativity of 7th grade students. A pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design with the control group was adopted into the research. The participants of this research were 64 secondary school students, 35 of whom were in the experimental group and 29 of whom were in the control group. To examine the effect of the intervention, a scientific creativity test was used and Wilcoxon signed ranks test, Mann-Whitney U-test, dependent t-tests were performed to analyse the data. The results revealed a significant difference in scientific creativity test scores, favoring the experimental group. When the subscales originality, flexibility and fluency were analysed, a significant difference in favor of the post-test of the experimental group was noted. However, no significant difference was found between the pre-post test scores of the control group. This means that the intervention has the potential to increase the scientific creativity of seventh grade students. Drawing on the results of this research, we argue that STEM supported education should be used to identify the appropriate steps of the engineering design process for secondary school and high school levels.

Problem Statement :Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education aims at improving students’ knowledge and skills in science and math, and thus their attitudes and career choices intheseareas. The ultimate goal in STEM education is to create scientifically literate individuals whocan survive in the global economy. The identification of new learning outcomes, curriculum programs, and teaching practices needs to be clarified by the STEM education community. Media design processes are a potential teaching method in STEM education that requires learners to designdigital media artifacts using a variety of technological tools. Purpose of the Study : This study investigatesthe impactof science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) integrated media design processes on 8th grade students’ attitudes towardscience and technology classes, as well as their views about these design processes in after-school science activities. In addition, it demonstratesthe opinions of the classroom teacher regardingthe integration of media design processes in science classes. Method : Using anaction research design, 21 secondary students from a public school participated in this 14-week study. The quantitative data that was collected from the student attitude survey for science and technology classes was analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, while the qualitative data (student artifacts, PSA forms, semi-structured interviews, and field notes) was analyzed through open coding and thematic analysis respectively. Findings and Results: The findings indicated that STEM-integrated media design processes positively impacted the participating students’ attitudes toward science and media design activities. In addition, students were more motivated and engaged in the media design processes, which improved their learning ofscience content and participation in class discussions. Conclusion and Recommendations: The literature in STEM education calls for new curricular activities and teaching practices as well as the integration of art in STEM. In addition, the visual technology industry in this century creates a job market for the STEM-literate people who are able to apply their knowledge of STEM fields in visual technologies and art. In response to these demands, the positive outcomes of media design processes used in this study offer an encouragingpremise in meeting the objectives of STEM education. Keywords: science, technology, engineering, andmathematics (STEM) education, media design, public service announcements (PSAs), action research, after-school activities

The STEM education emphasizes on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics with a major focus on engineering design process that engineers require in solving challenges or problems. Kolb's model provides micro-learning activities such as experiencing, sharing and processing, generalizing and applying. Therefore, both Kolb’s model and engineering design process are indispensable in K-12 STEM education. The K-12 STEM curriculum provides and guides students to complete a series of experiential tasks in engineering design process. Kolb's model explains how Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are connected and integrated in each task of engineering design, while the engineering design process is an effective pedagogical approach for students to learn how to solve real problems. The purpose of this study was to explore the positive role of Kolb's model and engineering design process in K-12 STEM education from the students’ perspective. The results of experimental research with 32 middle school students showed that a series of experiential tasks in engineering design process are effective activities to cultivate knowledge construction, intrinsic motivation and satisfaction of students, and stimulate students' interest in STEM fields.

Although STEM education has been advocated internationally, the integration of interdisciplinary learning into STEM education and the gender disparity in the STEM field are challenging. Our research team in Taiwan developed a female-friendly and innovative STEM curriculum with flat (rather than bulky) speakers to enhance male and female students’ creativity in developing new technology and to foster their interdisciplinary thinking. Participating year 10 students were encouraged in the 3-hour course to integrate science knowledge into their engineering design processes in order to better develop, evaluate, and revise their technology products. In this study, we examined this STEM curriculum to show the progression of male and female students’ engineering designs and their attitudes towards STEM. Through the systematic guidance of the STEM curriculum, students’ engineering designs improved, regardless of gender. There were no significant differences between male and female students’ performance in engineering design in each stage of the STEM curriculum, However, in terms of the improvement in engineering design ability, female students did not improve whereas their male counterparts did in some activities. Participating in the STEM curriculum developed by this study increased the positive attitudes of both male and female students towards STEM and STEM learning. It also reduced the attitude gap between the two genders seen before the course in the technology dimension. The study findings can contribute to the development of better ways of integrating interdisciplinary learning and teaching and enhancing male and female students’ engineering designs and attitudes towards STEM.KeywordsPhysicsEngineering designAttitudes towards STEMCurriculum designAssessment of STEM learning

Understanding the design process may reveal when and where resources should be focused and how engineers can better use tools, methods, and techniques to enhance the quality of designs and creative performance. The literature suggests the importance of iterative evaluation and reformulation in the engineering design process. The current study collected 111 high school students’ logs of designing an energy-saving house in Energy3D, a computer-aided design environment. Using a cross-lag model, we investigated the reciprocal relationship between students’ evaluation and reformulation behaviors and how these behaviors influence students’ design performance at the early, middle, and final design stages. The results suggest that there is a positive predictive relationship between students’ evaluation and reformulation process; reformulation positively predicts design performance and mediates the relationship between evaluation and design performance across time. These results provide empirical evidence of the importance of iterative evaluation and reformulation in the design process and implications for teachers and system designers to support students’ design.

This study aims to systematically examine the importance and use of action research in science education. 30 articles in the Web of Science (WoS) database were analyzed according to the research, problem status, distribution by years, study groups and findings. It was determined that the most studied problem status was students' skills and emotions; there was a noticeable change between 2013 and 2023; most of the study groups of the articles were high school students, student candidates and teachers, and the findings were in the areas of "scientific thinking and skill development", "design of educational environments and use of technology", "understanding of concepts", "intercultural and inclusive education", "new student-centered educational approaches", "teacher education and professional development". According to this article, it was observed that action research has positive effects on science education, and it is expected that providing support to teachers and researchers will increase the conduct of action research and increase the quality of science education.

This study aims to develop and determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)-based e-module using the Engineering Design Process (EDP) approach in elementary science learning. The research employed a Research and Development (R&D) method using the ADDIE model, which consists of five stages: Analyze (identifying needs and student characteristics), Design (designing the structure and content of the e-module), Develop (developing the digital product and conducting expert validation), Implement (testing with fifth-grade students at SDN Gunung Parang, Sukabumi City), and Evaluate (analyzing effectiveness through pre-test, post-test, and student response questionnaires). The subjects were 21 fifth-grade students. Data were collected through interviews, questionnaires, expert validations (material, media, and practitioners), and learning achievement tests. Validation results showed an overall feasibility score of 88% (very feasible), with 79% from material experts, 90% from media experts, and 95% from practitioners. Effectiveness testing indicated an increase in students’ average scores from 59.38 (pre-test) to 90.00 (post-test), with an N-Gain value of 0.75 (high category). Therefore, the STEM–EDP-based e-module is declared feasible and effective for improving students’ conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills on the topic Light and Its Properties, serving as an innovative alternative learning medium for elementary science education.

In recent decades, integrated science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) projects are occupying a central place in science and engineering curricula. The interest of this problem-based teaching approach in a scientific-technical context lies in finding ways to develop students’ content knowledge and to plan appropriate learning activities and instructional strategies. This paper focuses on designing, implementing and evaluating the introduction of STEM projects in the first year of the engineering degree of a Dual Engineering School. The focus of this study is the use of learning activities such as “predict and argument” and “design and do” to integrate STEM content into lessons and help students develop core competencies through engineering design processes. The evaluation results indicate that students moderately improve their scientific skills and conceptual understanding in the disciplines included in the project.

This study describes the implementation of a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) approach in chemistry to develop the critical thinking skills of 32, year 10 students completing a multimedia major at a vocational high school in Banten Province. Critical thinking is an important skill that students need to face 21st-century challenges. A qualitative methodology was employed to explore the development of critical thinking through multiple data collection of classroom observations, interviews, reflective journals, and a concept test. Critical thinking criteria were used to identify the question at issue, students’ conceptual understandings, their ability to connect ideas and to make assumptions and inferences. The application of a STEM approach was carried out by integrating it with a project-based learning model to explore the electrochemistry topic through etching on a metal plate and stainless-steel cup. Students integrated their understanding of chemicals using STEM principles to developing a project. Analysis of a critical thinking skills rubric, indicated that students could identify the question at issue and make inferences at a good level, while they reach a sufficient level on the measures of conceptual understanding, ideas connection, and assumptions. The challenges faced in this study were time management, lack of student involvement, and project development that must be in line with the learning topic. The integration of STEM in chemistry education has a positive impact on students’ engagement, motivation, collaboration, and creativity by undertaking projects in existing learning environments.

The aim of this research is to increase the concepts understanding and the student's competences to measure through the application of contextual teaching and learning models. The subject of this research was abut 40 the first level student's of SLTPN 1 Pontianak. The typed of this research was Classrom Action Research (CAR) by two cycles. The aim of the cycle was Contextual Teaching and Learning that focused about base units and derived' units. Through this research, it will found the information about comprehension profile and student's competences related to the measurement. The achievement of the claasroom action research's cycles was the mastery learning of 70% student that can be done the test minimal 65%. In collecting data the measurement test is done writtenly and performance test. The instruments that used in this research are the concepts understanding and performance test, observation guidance and also the field notes. From the research result, it shown that the qualities of students' concept understanding and competences about measurement are increases. The students' concepts understanding can increase from the average 49,25% to 78,75%, and the students' competence about measurement increase too from the average 42,19% to 77,81%. The result study that analyzed by Mc'Nemar test is showing the differences significantly between the result of pretest and posttest to conceptual understanding. Therefore, in general, the application of contextual teaching and learning multimodel can increase the the students' result study significantly.Key word : Multimodel Teaching, Competences, The Contextual Aproach.