Scientific research and engineering design: Seven branches of stem solutions

Scientific research and engineering design: Seven branches of stem solutions

Nancy Butler Songer, Assistant Provost for STEM Education at the University of Utah, focuses on scientific research and engineering design related to our complex world by identifying the Seven Elements of STEM Solutions.

“The 2024 Climate Change headlines give cause for great concern. Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing steadily, increasing the long-term temperature increase, highlighting the rapid changes in our climate system in the space of one generation. Every degree of warming affects our planet, our lives, future generations” (World Meteorological Organization, 2024; p. 2).

We face many complex, interdisciplinary challenges that have foundations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Based on more than two decades of research and development of STEM education programs for young people aged 10-15, we have identified seven key areas of educational context to guide young people towards a solution design local environmental problems. We call these the Seven STEM Solution Centers.

  1. The spine is a specific phenomenon related to the space of meaning and meaning. The backbone is the focus of all academic, assessment, and professional learning activities and provides an incentive for students to recognize that their learning has value. In our USAID-funded program in Egypt (Merlino & Pomeroy, 2024), the spine was one of Egypt’s Grand Challenges that was the focus of a semester-long student project. For example, to tackle the Grand Challenge of reducing pollution, students designed and built methane sensors for local waste bins in Cairo and a mobile app to guide waste collectors to prioritize the waste cans that produced the conditions the highest of methane.
  2. Educational products need to have a purpose or object, and an audience of supporters. Throughout our educational programs, we create activities that empower young people to provide solutions and share their knowledge with local stakeholders, including scientists, community members and government agencies. The focus on local content makes many aspects of classroom activities different from those typically found in traditional classrooms. For example, rather than student work leading to knowledge of words or facts, student work in our programs leads to student understanding of the natural and engineering world. Students appreciate the importance of learning when they say, “We are solving Egypt’s problems.”
  3. Learning has to be challenging enough, with the ability to control the battle. In our programs, the teacher’s role shifts to a facilitator and partner in feedback discussions. For example, when a group discusses what evidence is, the conversation discusses where the evidence comes from, how this evidence fits the scientific question, and how the concept of evidence differs from other similar concepts, such as data. Often, these discussions also include appropriate guidance, such as tips or scaffolds.
  4. Students practice collaboration when working in groups and draw from multiple sources to design solutions. For example, in one program focused on trap design to reduce local pest populations, students create at least three designs for their trap, followed by peer critiques to assess effectiveness, design, and ease of repair. . In this way, students model problem solving and criticism, which is common among professionals.
  5. Learning to recognize intermediate indicators of progress and evaluation of learning milestones against endpoints. In our programs, students have many opportunities to provide evidence of their progress and areas where their efforts are lacking. Students and teachers have many opportunities to check understanding and provide scaffolds or guidance. Project work is also very important. For example, in Egypt, students’ capstone projects count for 60% of the semester grade.

    Figure: Intergovernmental Panel on the Future of Climate Change (simplified)
    Figure: Intergovernmental Panel on the Future of Climate Change (simplified)

  6. The best scientists, engineers and educators must work together to facilitate tools that support youth problem solving. Strategic simplification recognizes the importance of carefully selecting data in complex problem situations for simplification without introducing errors. This simplification also allows young people to deal with this problem and find a solution that can be useful. An example is the climate impact curriculum that was used simplified Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) future scenarios model program to look at the current and future distribution of animal species. Our team collaborated with IPCC scientists to create a simplified model of their future scenarios (figure). Next, the students used a simple projection model to predict where organisms might live in the year 2100 under different futures by variation in population growth rate, per capita energy consumption, share of clean energy, and total carbon dioxide emissions. .
  7. To accomplish system change, organizations must sustain relationships, finances, and learning activities for years or even decades. Learning materials must support students’ learning over several weeks or months so that they have multiple opportunities and sustained engagement in cognitive development. Our curriculum follows the sequence outlined in educational vision documents (e.g. NRC, 2012) with activities that transition between several phases of scientific research activities (e.g. data collection, analysis and argument building). and engineering design (eg design and construction solutions).

This sequence supports the mirroring of young scientists and engineers to practice fluid and iterative design to find optimal solutions. Teacher learning is also held over many years so that teachers can take risks and make continuous improvements. Financial investments must be made to test, develop and stabilize ideas.

The future of STEM

Because the world’s challenges with STEM foundations are complex, we must provide a wide variety of opportunities for young people before college or professional careers to interact and practice scientific research and engineering design in design. of the solution. These types of programs require thinking beyond traditional methods and the narrow boundaries of science education. Such thinking is important for all of our futures.

References

  • Merlino, FJ & Pomeroy, D. (2024) New Era-New Urgency: The case for revitalizing education. New York, NY: Lexington Books.
  • National Research Council [NRC] (2012) Designing K-12 Science Education: Approaches, Crosscutting Perspectives and Core Concepts. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
  • World Meteorological Organization (2024) 2024 Climate Outlook for COP20. Downloaded on 11.27.24 from https://wmo.int/publication-series/state-of-climate-2024-update-cop29

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