ERIC Number: EJ1439670
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Nov
Pages: 29
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0957 7572
EISSN: EISSN-1573-1804
The Impact of STEM Curriculum on Students' Engineering Design Abilities and Attitudes toward STEM
Meng-Fei Cheng; Yu-Heng Lo; Chi-Ho Cheng
International Journal of Technology and Design Education, v34 n5 p1805-1833 2024
While it has been recognized that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education requires an interdisciplinary approach, integrating multiple subjects in a meaningful way remains challenging for teachers. This study aimed to design a STEM curriculum, emphasizing explicit and continuous scaffolding of students' reflection on scientific and engineering knowledge. The primary goal was to foster knowledge integration in their engineering designs and enhance their attitudes toward STEM. The study involved fifty tenth-grade students who were guided to discuss and reflect on relevant scientific and engineering knowledge and to apply mathematics for data collection and analysis during the design of their technology products. The research instruments included an assessment of the progression of knowledge integration in students' engineering designs through student journals and pre- and post-test surveys on attitudes toward science, technology, engineering, and the learning environment. The results reveal that the introduction and explicit scaffolding students' reflection on scientific and engineering knowledge led to a gradual improvement in knowledge integration within their engineering designs. Students also significantly enhanced their attitudes toward STEM and the learning environment compared to the general school curriculum. This study contributes to interdisciplinary learning that promotes the integration of scientific and engineering knowledge in students' engineering design processes, and to interdisciplinary assessment that evaluates students' knowledge integration across learning progressions and outcomes.
Descriptors: STEM Education, Student Attitudes, Interdisciplinary Approach, Grade 10, Knowledge Level, Engineering Education, Design, Science Education
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2123/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Grade 10; High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A