Abstract
A major challenge in modern society is the need to increase awareness and excitement with regard to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and related careers directly or among peers and parents in order to attract future generations of scientists and engineers. The numbers of students aiming for an engineering degree are low compared to the options available and the workforce needed. This may, in part, be due to a traditional lack of instruction in this area in secondary school curricula. In this regard, STEM outreach programs can complement formal learning settings and help to promote engineering as well as science to school students. In a long-term outreach collaboration with scientists and engineers, we developed an outreach program in the field of magnetoelectric sensing that includes an out-of-school project day and various accompanying teaching materials. In this article, we motivate the relevance of the topic for educational outreach, share the rationales, objectives and aims, models and implementation strategies of our program and provide practical advice for those interested in outreach in the field of magnetoelectric sensing.
Highlights
We present a design-based STEM-integrated outreach activity centered around magnetoelectric sensing within the context of heart diagnostics
From an educational point of view, the design framework applied the goals and principles of context-based learning and integrated STEM education by contextualizing the project day within a medical problem, by developing experiments that allow hands-on activities and by integrating media elements that directly showcase the work of the scientists and engineers
The current design of the project day at the Kiel Science Factory is based on the research
Summary
Attracting motivated and skilled workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is difficult [1] Adding to this problem, the ability to combine knowledge and skills from STEM disciplines will be increasing in demand as more and more institutions recognize innovations in integrated STEM areas as the key to the future economy and social progress [2,3,4]. Both students and teachers confirmed that they enjoyed this introduction, which embedded the ME sensing approach in a medical context After this introductory phase, the students begin to work in small groups with their own supervisor—university students that received content instruction beforehand—in order to encourage an active exchange regarding the respective sensor principles or concepts.
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