Science, Technology, Engineering And Math Education Research Articles

Sciencing Out, an informal STEM education program in Madagascar: A case-study

Sciencing Out (SciOut) facilitated by Explorer Home Madagascar Science Center, a Malagasy NGO, is an innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education program because it incorporates out-of-school education, student and scientist collaborations, local and international partnerships, and arts education. This case-study describes the program’s unique educational components alongside evaluation data to understand: How does a field program like SciOut help students engage with STEM topics? The results demonstrate that out-of-school, field-based experiences that connect students to local experts and biodiversity topics are important for increasing access to STEM knowledge and careers.

Evaluation of STEM students' critical thinking in terms of cognitive style through problem-based distance learning

The advent of digital technology has brought about a transformation in the field of education, from traditional face-to-face learning to distance learning. Despite this shift, it is important to prioritize the development of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) students' critical thinking (CT) abilities as an essential skill for success in the 21st century. The objective of this study is to assess the critical thinking (CT) skills of students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by considering their cognitive styles, namely field-independent and field-dependent, through the implementation of Problem-Based Distance Learning (PBDL). The research follows an evaluative and experimental approach based on the Kirkpatrick four-level model, which was conducted at one of the universities providing STEM education in eastern Indonesia. To evaluate different components of learning, cognitive style, and critical thinking (CT), a wide range of tools with tested psychometric features (validity and reliability) were used. A comprehensive examination using both descriptive and statistical analyses was undertaken to evaluate the outcomes. The results of this study indicate that Problem-Based Distance Learning (PBDL) is a successful approach in enhancing the Critical Thinking (CT) skills of STEM students, irrespective of their cognitive types. The paper provides a detailed discussion of the thorough examination of input, process, output, and outcome factors. This study is very valuable and will contribute to a lot of literature, especially related to the development of distance pedagogy in STEM learning.

Integrating educational robot and low-cost self-made toys to enhance STEM learning performance for primary school students

ABSTRACT The application of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education in solving real-world problems is challenging. To tackle this challenge, a project-based learning approach that integrates robots with cost-effective self-made toys to problem-solving was adopted to assist rural primary school students to apply STEM skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the project-based learning approach which includes lecturing and hands-on activities on primary school students’ STEM learning outcomes and attitudes. An experiment was conducted with 25 primary school students who voluntarily participated in a STEM summer-camp programme. Students were asked to assemble a paper house equipped with an IoT control module and LED light switches, and write and edit robot scripts to produce a robot-based storytelling narrative using the paper house they made as a context. The results show that the project-based learning approach was an effective approach for cultivating primary school students’ STEM knowledge and skills as evidenced from the post-written test. The relationships between the students’ STEM learning outcomes and attitudes were also confirmed by a clustering analysis. Students who had higher learning attitudes also achieved higher STEM learning outcomes; the findings are also supported by the feedback from the open-ended questionnaire items. This study suggests that integrating low-cost self-made toys and robots in project-based learning activities is an effective and practical approach to enhance primary school students’ learning outcomes and learning attitudes in STEM education.

Experiential learning through STEM: Recent initiatives in the United States

AbstractThis paper reviews recent educational initiatives in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the United States, asking to what extent experiential learning methods are being incorporated into STEM education. We draw on a combination of qualitative and quantitative evidence. The quantitative evidence is from an analysis of the proposal abstracts for all 11,406 of the STEM education and workforce development‐related projects funded by NSF grants from the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2022. The qualitative portion of the paper analyzes results from a number of scholarly studies of local initiatives from the last 10 years drawn from a range of published and conference papers, reports and media stories, and project websites, drawn from education research databases, secondary literature, and websites of specific organizations. We seek to classify and describe patterns observed among the projects examined, identifying common patterns and combinations of features. We believe that the paper represents the first comprehensive study of efforts to employ experiential learning methods in STEM education to link formal and informal aspects of learning.

Using Supplemental Instruction through the EMPOWER Program to Increase Diversity in STEM Fields

The underrepresentation of women and racial minorities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields is of national concern. Despite recent increases, females continue to be underrepresented in math, physical science, and engineering related fields compared to their male counterparts. There is also evidence showing a troubling inequity trend in enrollment of most graduate and all post graduate degrees in STEM fields. These factors ultimately impact the workforce with women less likely than men with similar degrees to actually be employed in these fields, constituting 23% of the science and engineering labor force and only 10 % of employed physicists. Well-structured interventions are needed to support African American women in overcoming barriers to increase their representation in STEM. What is Needed to Make a Difference? Extracurricular instruction in the form of supplemental educational programming is needed to identify, engage and retain African American female students to ensure their level of post-secondary education STEM success and beyond. The R25 Summer Research Education Program is designed to support education activities that complement and or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation’s biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs. Methods: The Engaging Multidisciplinary Professional Opportunities for Women in Environmental Research (EMPOWER) program was created to address the diversity in STEM. This summer research experience program was developed to educate high school science teachers in tandem with outstanding African American and Hispanic women from metro Atlanta high schools in the research approaches and competencies required for a deeper understanding of how to measure and assess environmental exposures, including air and water in the urban environment and link them to health effects. Results/Discussion: Students and teachers participated in a four-week summer program. The primary objectives of EMPOWER were two-fold including:1) Enhance teaching capacity within the sciences and assist in the development of public and environmental health curriculum along with in class activities intended to promote interest in STEM. 2) Provide African-American and LatinX women opportunities to engage in faculty lead research projects, obtain hands-on training in tandem with professional and soft skill development. EMPOWER’s major contribution will be to continue to enhance STEM education in high schools leading to higher quality post-secondary opportunities and greater workforce diversity. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Science Communication: A Panacea for Addressing Gender-Gap in Nigeria’s STEM Education

There is a major concern about the prevalence of the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education in some developing countries. Thus, this study examined the existing communication interventions for disseminating information about STEM to women and girls in two universities in Nigeria. It leveraged Roger’s 1962 diffusion of innovations theory. The qualitative method was used, where fifty-six respondents from departments of computer science, engineering and mathematics, were examined to determine their extent of exposure to STEM-related information and their communication preferences for STEM-related messages. Results suggest that the majority of the respondents receive stem information through the mass media of which newspapers and magazinesranked highest. Accordingly, the majority of them would prefer personalized face-to-face communication and social media. The study recommended that change agents should be involved in the door–to–door campaign on STEM education.

WeatherChimes: An Open IoT Weather Station and Data Sonification System

Many people in the United States are disconnected from their environment: urban residents spend 90% of their time indoors inside confined climate-controlled spaces. In addition to being physically separated from the natural environment, much of human understanding of the world’s environment is inferred from data collected by satellites orbiting 22,000 miles away. In contrast, in-situ environmental sensor systems are physically accessible, location specific, and essential for correcting and validating weather measurements. However, present options for in-situ systems are mostly limited to expensive, proprietary commercial data loggers with inflexible data access protocols. WeatherChimes is an open-source Arduino-programmable, low-cost hardware and software suite that enables near real-time access to in-situ environmental sensor data (including light, temperature, relative humidity, and soil moisture) anywhere with a WiFi internet connection. Scientists, educators, and artists alike can use this tool to obtain and interact with environmental data in new and innovative ways, as well as collaborate remotely. Transforming data collection processes of environmental sensors into Internet of Things (IoT) compatible formats opens new doors into accessing, understanding, and interacting with natural phenomena. WeatherChimes not only enables users to observe data online, but can also transform data into auditory signals and soundscapes through sonification processes or creative animations using newly-created computer applications. Lab and field tests have confirmed the sensor and online data logging performance of the system. We describe the application of WeatherChimes in an undergraduate Honors College classroom and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education workshop series in Sitka Alaska, which was used to not only teach about environmental sensors, but to explore how different aspects of our environment are interrelated (e.g. temperature and humidity) through sonification.

Investigating Teachers’ Perceptions of STEM Education in Private Elementary Schools in Abu Dhabi

One of the furthermost essential reforms in education is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education. To implement STEM education effectively at the elementary level, the teachers must be well equipped to face the complicated web that enshrouds the STEM education field. Identifying teachers’ perceptions of STEM education is considered one of the ultimate significant processes that need to be considered by the STEM education stakeholders as the teachers’ STEM practices are highly influenced by their perceptions of STEM. 
 
 The purpose of this study was to investigate the teachers’ perceptions of STEM education in Abu Dhabi private elementary schools. The researcher conducted an empirical study with a mixed methods design to meet the purpose of the study. 75 STEM elementary teachers from different private schools in Abu Dhabi participated in this study via an online survey method. The instrument of this study was a teacher questionnaire which was adopted from the valid and reliable cross-sectional Vietnamese survey of Thi To Khuyen et al. (2020) based on their official permission.
 
 The quantitative findings related to the teacher questionnaire revealed that 75% of the elementary teachers in STEM private schools in Abu Dhabi strongly understand what STEM education is and they strongly agreed that STEM competencies are extremely important. Yet, 50% of the teachers agreed that they find difficulties in implementing STEM education. Qualitative data related to the teacher questionnaire revealed that these difficulties were related specifically to the lack of STEM resources, the constraint of time, and the need for professional development.
 
 This study is unique in the UAE as no studies up to the best of the researcher’s knowledge were conducted to investigate the teachers’ perceptions of STEM education in private elementary schools in Abu Dhabi. Hereafter, this study is significant by contributing to the STEM literature in the UAE. More, the results of the study are valuable in terms of stipulating implications for STEM elementary education program developers as teachers’ perceptions affect and shape their decisions in STEM field.

Integrating arts with STEM and leading with STEAM to increase science learning with equity for emerging bilingual learners in the United States

BackgroundTo inform STEM education for benefiting emerging bilingual (EB) and English fluent (EF) students, the present study evaluated the order effects of integrating science and arts within a large-scale, ongoing effort investigating the efficacies of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-aligned Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) methodologies to provide more equitable opportunities to students to learn science through Arts integration (STEAM). The experiment examines the curriculum integrating order of implementing combinations of STEM and STEAM approaches in fifth grade life and physical science instruction, comparing (STEM → STEAM) vs (STEAM → STEM).ResultsT tests and a three-way between-groups analysis of covariance examined the impact of instructional order, language fluency, and teachers’ implementation fidelity. Findings indicate similar results in life and physical sciences, in which the STEAM first approach produced significantly higher science learning gains for both EF and EB students, revealing some higher learning gains for EF students, but with greater STEAM first order effect advantages for EB students overall. While EF students show higher learning gain scores in the high fidelity classrooms, the advantage of the STEAM first order is greater for EB students in all classroom fidelity levels and even within low to moderate implementation fidelity classrooms, as may commonly occur, such that the integration order of STEAM before STEM strategy is particularly advantageous to EB learners.ConclusionsThe integration pattern of leading with STEAM and following with STEM offers an important opportunity to learn for EB students, and increases equity in opportunities to learn among EB and EF learners of science. Both EB and EF students benefit similarly and significantly in high fidelity implementation classrooms. However, the gains for EF students are not significant in low fidelity implementation classrooms, while in such low fidelity implementation classrooms, the EB students still benefited significantly despite the poor implementation. These results suggest that a strong compensating STEAM first order effect advantage is possibly involved in the implementation system for the EB population of learners. Teaching science through the arts with STEAM lessons is an effective approach that can be significantly improved through introducing STEM units with the STEAM first order effect advantage.

STEM Education Pilot a Resounding Success: Project Lets Young People Experience World-Class Scientific Equipment and Training

Abstract: As part of the Hitachi High-Tech America Inspire STEM Education Outreach Programme in the UK, a successful STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education pilot has seen over 5000 students from 80 schools given the opportunity to use scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) for their own experiments. The collaborative project allowed students to design, propose, and execute experiments to give them hands-on experience with scientific research. Feedback from the project has been resoundingly positive, with many students gaining new skills and an interest in STEM, and it looks set to grow further to allow more students access to high-level scientific equipment.

Managing Turnover of STEM Teacher Workforce

We are facing a lack of skilled and certified STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) teachers confined to schools with specific characteristics, such as working conditions and neighborhoods. It is essential to understand teachers’ decision-making processes that affect teacher turnover rates to enable schools to retain and motivate STEM. This study hypothesizes that lower job satisfaction concerning location and opportunities for advancement and independence is positively associated with voluntary leave from a school to another school or job switched from the K-12 teaching profession to other industries. We utilized a logit analysis for internal mobility if teachers remained in K-12 teaching but switch schools and external mobility if employed in non-education sectors using the National Survey of College Graduates data. The results varied by teacher experiences and mobility type. For novice STEM teachers, more opportunities for career advancements are needed to prevent external attrition. Internal mobility can be addressed via the overall improvement of the urban education environment and teacher compensation. Administrative support for experienced teachers’ career advancement should be considered. Government policies on STEM education need differentiated support considering teachers’ work experiences and working conditions.

“Physicists” and “lyricists”: Whom the Russian labor market values higher?

In this study, we raise a simple question: do STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education and employment provide a monetary return to professionals with this specialization and holding STEM jobs? If yes, what is the premium across ages and cohorts? We compare wages of professionals with the STEM education and without it, holding STEM jobs and those working in alternative positions, and with various combinations of education and jobs. We estimate premiums for the whole sample as well as for different age groups and cohorts. For this, we use various large data sets with variables for college majors and occupational positions. The main conclusion is that the STEM specialization brings no significant benefits compared to non-STEM majors and jobs. The premium does not emerge over experience or age; moreover, older groups engaged in STEM-related work tend to experience a wage penalty. As we move from younger to older age cohorts, the wage growth declines which means that wages for younger age cohorts catch up and take over the older ones, even if they were initially lower. These results are reproduced on all available datasets.

A capability maturity model for assessment of active learning in higher education

PurposeAlthough active learning methodologies are recognized as an effective means to achieve expected educational demands, in practice, the teaching and learning processes are still widely characterized by traditional pedagogy aspects. As a result, teaching innovations in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education are carried out in isolation in specific disciplines, programs or departments. To addresses these challenges and to stimulate useful teaching innovations, this study aims to propose the capability maturity model to active learning (CMMAL) for assessing the maturity level of active learning methodologies in higher education institutions (HEIs).Design/methodology/approachThe CMMAL provides inputs for planning and decision-making, identifying variables such as the current state of teaching and learning processes, project management, team development, allocation of resources and infrastructure and the choice of evaluation and assessment methods. From the relevant literature, the primary aspects that impact on active learning were identified and incorporated into the structure of the model. Next, a survey was performed with 295 STEM professors and experts validating the scope of the model proposed.FindingsThe findings demonstrated the contribution of the CMMAL mainly to (1) assess the maturity levels of active methodologies in higher education and (2) stimulate the institutionalization of active learning practices in HEIs to minimize some problems related to the dissemination of new teaching practices.Practical implicationsThe primary practical and academic contribution of our study is the proposition of an artifact with a scope compatible with the need of the HEIs for the implementation of active learning methodologies. This paper presents a different perspective of current literature in active learning in STEM education, introducing a model that contributes to open the dialogue with HEIs interested in better understand and improve the performance in student-centered pedagogy.Originality/valueThe model also informs and leads to specific recommendations for HEIs seeking to enhance the performance of and alter the culture around active learning methodologies.

Case-based learning combined with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education concept to improve clinical thinking of undergraduate nursing students: A randomized experiment.

AimsThe present study was conducted to apply and examine case‐based learning (CBL) and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education concept in the training of nursing student's clinical thinking.DesignA randomized experimental design with non‐equivalent group pretest–posttest.MethodsParticipants were requested to participant in either of the two programmes: traditional education programme as a control group or CBL combined with STEM education concept (the STEM group). Questionnaires of critical thinking, self‐directed learning, self‐efficacy were administered before and after the experiment.ResultsDifferences between the STEM group and control group were observed in critical thinking, self‐directed learning, self‐efficacy and career choice over one semester. Accordingly, CBL combined with STEM education concept enhanced the nursing student's clinical thinking.

STEM Education: From Sputnik to Girl Scouts

The inconsistency of defining STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education is being addressed in this article. Seeing STEM education as having implications ranging from migration to workforce policies, it is vital to clarify its (inter)disciplinary structure and curriculum orientation. Using a literature review and analysis of documents, STEM education is being tracked from a post-sputnik era to more recent informal and private endeavors, revealing a multiplication of the STEM acronym and the diversification of its curriculum orientation. The findings confirm that there is no consensus on the exact scientific fields assigned to STEM, and the list of disciplines involved ranges from broad (including Social sciences, Humanities or Arts) to narrow (dominated by Natural and Formal sciences). The article implies that historical context and reforms in natural science education partly explain this inconsistency, as the subjects and their interdisciplinary relations are closely linked to overall curriculum orientation, which could be seen as cyclical in nature, swinging from child centered to labor market or subject centered curriculum, inviting to discuss modern science education not as singular STEM, but as plural STEMs viable to multiple pedagogical approaches, integration patterns and aims.

Undergraduate Disabled Students as Knowledge Producers including Researchers: A Missed Topic in Academic Literature

Research experience is beneficial for undergraduate students for many reasons. For example, it is argued in academic literature and in reports produced by various organizations that engage with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and science education that undergraduate research experience increases the graduation rate in STEM disciplines as well as the amount of students thinking about STEM careers. As such, being researchers should also be of benefit to undergraduate disabled students in all disciplines including STEM education. However, given that undergraduate disabled students encounter many problems within post-secondary education, including STEM education, undergraduate disabled students might encounter problems in becoming researchers. Policies are to be guided by knowledge and evidence. However, knowledge and evidence deficits exist in relation to the lived experience of disabled people. Undergraduate disabled students could decrease the knowledge deficit as researchers and knowledge producers. The numbers of disabled academic faculty are judged as being too low and efforts are under way to increase the number of disabled academics. Increasing the number of undergraduate disabled researchers might increase the available pool of disabled students that pursue an academic career. Given the important role research performed by undergraduate disabled students can play and given that many studies highlight problems for disabled students in post-secondary education in general, we used a scoping review approach to investigate the coverage of undergraduate disabled students as knowledge producers, including as researchers, in the academic literature. Using various search strategies, we obtained 1299 initial hits. However, only 15 had relevant content. No study investigated how undergraduate disabled students select their research topics or how they are enticed to pursue research projects outside of a course-based framework. No study looked at the linkage between being an undergraduate disabled researcher and career choices or using the obtained research skills on the undergraduate level in one’s role as a community member after graduation. Our findings suggest an opportunity for many fields, ranging from disability studies to STEM education, to generate more empirical data and conceptual work on the role of undergraduate disabled students as knowledge producers including as researchers. Such studies could help to increase the numbers of undergraduate disabled students as knowledge producers, including researchers, which in turn could help to increase (a) the number of disabled academics, (b) the number of disabled students who perform research in the community after graduation, (c) the degree success of disabled students and (d) the knowledge available on the social situation of disabled people.

STEM education to fulfil the 21st century demand: a literature review

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) was developed to answer challenges in the 21st century; where students are not only smart in terms of cognitive, but also skilled. STEM in education has the aim of preparing students to be competitive and ready to work according to their preferred fields. The benefits of applying STEM Education are to improve critical thinking skills and be creative, logical, innovative, productive and directly related to real conditions. The purpose of this study is to review the implementation of STEM Education models in the early 21st century. Technique of collecting data was through literature study. The results of this study: 1) STEM has been applied in various countries and in various branches of science; 2) History of STEM Education, 3) Implementation of STEM in non western country, 4) Skill that required in 21st century, 5) STEM to face 21st challenge.

STEA2M camp at the Orchard: A community cultural wealth approach

ABSTRACT Schools often fail to offer minoritized student groups access to quality STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education experiences. While policymakers should systemically address this curriculum gap problem, out-of-school educational programs offer an important way to provide quality STEM instruction while integrating students’ communities in culturally sustaining ways. This article describes one such program. The Orchard Community Learning Center operates as an urban farm in south Phoenix. Students engage in hands-on, project-based STEA2M (science, technology, engineering, arts, agriculture, and math) learning through a bilingual program that employs the framework of community cultural wealth. This framework recognizes the aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant capital that communities of color possess. The programs at the Orchard draw heavily on the students’ and their families’ capital in these areas and integrate them into the curriculum through culturally sustaining pedagogies. The work of urban agriculture at the Orchard provides a context for students to engage in authentic STEA2M learning through a curriculum developed in response to their interests and cultural backgrounds.

STEM OUTREACH FOR INDIGENOUS YOUTH – LESSONS LEARNED IN OVER A DECADE OF PROGRAMMING

With over a decade of conducting outreach programs for Indigenous youth, the Waterloo Engineering Outreach (WEO) office has gained insight and understanding through a reflective and analytical lens. We outline mistakes and lessons that we’ve learned over the years so others can benefit from our work. This includes the importance of community relationships, delivery and leadership styles, and balancing Western and Indigenous worldviews. The goal of sharing our practices is threefold: provide resources to any group planning to start their own outreach program, offer insight to Western educators to better support Indigenous youth pursuing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and highlight the necessity of cultural inclusivity and a communal approach in STEM education.

A Novel Group Engagement Score for Virtual Learning Environments

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education is currently receiving much attention from governments and educational institutions. Our work is based on active learning and video-based learning approaches to support STEM education. Here, we aimed to increase student's engagement through reflective processes that embrace video film-making, and subsequent on-line discussion and evaluation of those videos. We propose a group engagement score that takes into account both individual activity and similarity of participation, thus allowing corrective actions to be taken when unengaged students or groups are identified. We tested these ideas using our own social learning platform that combines the principal features of Social Networks with tools that facilitate collaborative learning design. This platform stimulates students' learning by means of two main reflective processes: participatory production and peer-review. We evaluated this platform and the learning approach it supports in an Object Oriented Programming course and identified interesting differences between group engagement and video ratings. Our principal conclusion is that greater teacher and student awareness of the ongoing activities and group engagement are needed.