STEM Holiday Activity: Designing for Flood Crisis

Abstract

STEM Holiday is a project initiated by the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology (IPST) to develop LEGO TM -based STEM activities in which students could participate during weekends or holidays. Designing for Flood Crisis is one of the activities developed to teach Thai secondary school students about simple machines through an engineering design process within the context of a flood crisis. The activity was piloted with twenty Thai students in 9 th grade. Direct observations were employed to evaluate students’ understanding of simple machines and their performance in designing and constructing a LEGO TM model. Questionnaires were used to evaluate students’ opinions about the activity and their improvement in creativity and teamwork skills. We found that most students could complete their LEGO TM models within the time limit. They could also give clear and accurate explanations of the concepts of simple machines applied in their designs. Moreover, most of them strongly agreed that the activity was suitable for them and could help improve their creativity and teamwork skills. These findings demonstrate the potential of using a LEGO TM -based activity to teach science during extra-curricular hours and in formal classrooms. More studies are necessary to strengthen the findings.