Features of Using the mBlock Program in the Scratch Environment in Teaching with STREAM Technology in High School

Abstract

In the leading countries of the world, learning through STEM, STEAM and STREAM is included in the curriculum of secondary schools. While STEM is about strengthening the role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in education, STREAM is about building systematic thinking skills by adding reading and art to the role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in education. In STREAM development, you can use the mBlock programming environment based on Scratch+Arduino. In secondary schools of the Republic of Kazakhstan, robotics is often used in the teaching of computer science using STEM technology. As a result of studying informatics, students have not developed the knowledge, skills, and abilities to create digital products using art, mathematics, and engineering. Therefore, there is a need to develop STREAM technology in teaching computer science using STEM technology in high school. In this regard, the purpose of the research work “Determining the specificity of the STREAM teaching method in secondary school” was set. To achieve this goal, firstly, the state of teaching STREAM teaching methods in secondary schools in the republic was determined and the results were analyzed. Secondly, an educational program was developed that combines engineering and mathematics sciences and teaches how to create a project that builds students’ ability to think systematically in the mBlock environment, built on the basis of Scratch+Arduino hardware-programming. The effectiveness of the STREAM teaching method was determined by conducting an optional lesson of the IT class according to the compiled curriculum. The experience of the research was carried out at R. Koshkarbayev secondary school No. 1 and IT school-lyceum of the city of Koschy. The teaching of the Scratch+Arduino hardware programming framework, which took place in computer science optional classes, was defined with mBlock code and ways of practical implementation were introduced. The curriculum of the optional lesson for 8th grade includes a total of 36 hours. In addition to the proposed training course program, digital educational resources were compiled, the teaching methodology was used in the educational process, and the effectiveness of the proposed teaching methods was determined as a result of the experiment. In the future, the training course program and digital educational resources of the course “mBlock Programming based on Scratch+Arduino” can be used in STEM classrooms or in elective computer science classes in any schools in the country.