STEM-Focused Activities to Support Student Learning in Primary School Science

This study examines the effect on student academic success through teaching the "Let's Know the Matter" grade 3 science unit accompanied by STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)-focused activities. The study group consisted of 24 third grade students studying in the 2019-2020 academic year. Teaching was done with a 5E (enter, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate) instructional model, and student opinions about the STEM activities were collected. A group pretest-posttest research design was used in which the "Let's Know the Matter Test (MT)" was administered at the beginning to measure the students' prior knowledge, and again at the end of the unit to determine what students had learned. Their opinions of the lessons taught with STEM-focused activities were collected using a semi-structured interview technique. Qualitative data were divided into appropriate categories under common themes. It was observed that the 5E instructional model contributed to their academic success. Also, it was found that their opinions about the lessons taught with STEM activities were quite positive. Based on the results obtained from the research, it is suggested that STEM activities be used in the teaching of other topics

Arduino ile Kara Şimşek Uygulamasına Yönelik Fen Bilgisi Öğrencilerinin Görüşleri

DergiPark: 608086tredBu araştırmada Arduino ile kara şimşekuygulaması gerçekleştirilmiş ve fen bilgisi öğrencilerinin bu uygulamayayönelik görüşleri incelenmiştir. Araştırmaya Fen Bilgisi Eğitimi Anabilim Dalıbirinci sınıfında öğrenim gören 40 öğrenci katılmıştır. Öğrencilere 4 açık uçlusorudan oluşan görüş formu uygulanmıştır. Görüş formundaki 4 açık uçlu sorudafen bilgisi öğrencilerinden Arduino kullanılarak yapılan kara şimşekuygulamasını değerlendirmeleri, Arduino kullanımının avantajları iledezavantajlarını ifade etmeleri ve öğretmen olduklarında Arduino kullanarakders işleyip işlemeyeceklerini yazılı olarak ifade etmeleri istenmiştir. Ayrıcauygulama sürecinde fen bilgisi öğrencileri tarafından kurulan tüm devrelerinfotoğrafları çekilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda fen bilgisi öğrencilerinin karaşimşek uygulaması Arduino devrelerini başarılı bir şekilde kurduklarıgörülmüştür. Fen bilgisi öğrencilerinin önemli bir kısmının kara şimşekuygulamasına yönelik görüşlerinin olumlu olduğu saptanmıştır. Fen bilgisiöğrencilerinin tamamına yakını Arduno kullanımının avantajları olduğunu, azsayıda öğrenci ise hem avantajlarının hem de dezavantajlarının olduğunu ifadeetmiştir. Fen bilgisi öğrencilerinin büyük bir çoğunluğu da öğretmenolduklarında Arduino kullanarak ders işleyeceklerini belirtmiştir

The Effectiveness of Using Robotics for Career Technology Education in a Middle School STE(A)M Course

Using robotics in education allows students to become familiar with multiple topics in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). With the use of robotic educational tools in the 8th – 12th grade classrooms, such as Sphero, Anki Cozmo, and Lego Mindstorms, few devices allow students to build the robots’ electrical circuits along with constructing and programming. By incorporating electronics into these educational tools, students can learn another fundamental disciplines of robotics. For this research, we introduce the Parallax ActivityBot 360⁰ to the Linus Pauling Middle School career technology education (CTE) course to see if the device promotes STEM. The ActivityBot 360⁰ incorporates robotics, electronics, computer science, and mathematics into constructing and using the device. Students use the tutorials given online to assemble the robot and to program it with a block-based coding language called BlocklyProp with an option to use the text-based C language. The main idea is to find the effectiveness of this tool for CTE courses and how it can change students’ interest, enjoyment, confidence, knowledge, and/or motivation to pursue a degree or career in STEM. For this research, we surveyed middle school students before and after using the device to see how their opinions and knowledge in STEM would change. From the results, we found that students’ confidence in three of the four topics surveyed increased after using the ActivityBot 360⁰

A human-interactive robotic program for middle school STEM education

© 2017 IEEE. The use of human-interactive robots in industry and daily life has become more prevalent throughout society as more people are using collaborative, and assistive robots to accomplish a task. To demonstrate the utility and importance of assistive robots to middle school students, a unique educational platform called Neu-pulator (neurally-controlled manipulator) was designed and fabricated to introduce their application in improving the quality of life. This robotic manipulator consists of low-cost components, which reflect the characteristics of a human arm, and is actuated by signals from the students neuromuscular system. During summer 2016, a 5-day program introduced students to the engineering design process as they designed, programmed, manufactured, and tested the Neu-pulator robot. A series of surveys and group interviews were performed to understand how each students attitude and opinion towards different STEM-related topics evolved throughout the course, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We observed that the students confidence, attitude, and excitement towards STEM improved over the course of the week, especially when they could see the robot they developed in action. With the use of this unique educational platform, a bridge can be made from learning fundamental STEM concepts to real-world application of human interactive and assistive robots