Professional Development for STEM Educators

This course provides an overview of the history of STEM education, including the emergence of STEM and STEM education in the US and its development in other regions, such as Europe and Asia. STEM education policies in selected countries, including Singapore, will be examined and discussed. Empirical studies will be analyzed and discussed to highlight trends in STEM education research. Differences in interpretation of STEM education will be highlighted in light of the STEM education policies and research discussed.

This course interconnects the teaching, learning, and assessment aspects of an integrated STEM curriculum. Various models of integration (e.g., disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary) will be discussed. The S-T-E-M Quartet developed by members of the meriSTEM@NIE will be introduced to facilitate students’ design and evaluation of STEM activities and curricula. Various modes of assessments targeting conceptual, epistemic, and social goals of STEM education will be highlighted to facilitate design of assessing learning in STEM activities.

STEM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. STEM can be designed and implemented in mono-, multi, inter-, and trans-disciplinary ways. In this course, the participants will go through a comprehensive programme which provides them with an introduction to STEM integration, integrated STEM curriculum design and integrated STEM curriculum implementation in the classroom.

STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) tasks should explicitly integrate two or more of the four S-T-E-M disciplines. In this course, participants will learn how the meriSTEM@NIE STEM Quartet framework is used to guide the design and implementation of a task that integrates all four disciplines in solving an authentic problem. During the course, participants will have hands-on experience in designing and building a stationery organiser prototype. The conceptual, epistemic and social affordances of the STEM task will be discussed.

Course date(s): 11 - 18 February 2022
Duration: 9 hours

Does dark coloured clothing really absorb more light? How much more light energy is absorbed and converted into heat for dark coloured clothing as compared to light coloured clothing? In this course, participants will have hands-on experience with PocketLab sensors, products of STEM applications, to investigate the relationship between heat conductance, light and colour. Instead of learning about the relationship qualitatively, actual measurements will be taken and conclusions will be drawn from collected evidence.

Course date(s): 9 May 2022 (closing date 15 April)
Duration: 3 hours

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education is provides a platform to integrate problem-solving competences relevant to solve problems in the 21st century. As such, it is of fundamental importance to equip students with knowledge of STEM disciplines so that they can contribute meaningful as citizens in the 21st century. To create opportunities for students to engage in STEM, teachers need to be able to craft meaningful tasks. In the workshop, participants will engage with three ready made STEM tasks related to the topics of homeostasis, digestion and photosynthesis. Upon completion of these tasks, the participants will craft their own STEM tasks using the Sense-Making Model (Schwarz, Passmore & Reiser, 2017) for peer critique.

Course dates(s): 20 May 2022 (closing date 19 April)
Duration: 6 hours

Problems related to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in the 21st century have increased in complexity. Preparing students to solve these STEM problems would require teachers to create spaces for students to explore, build, test, evaluate and critique. To create these meaningful STEM learning experiences, teachers need to be able to craft meaningful tasks. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the S-T-E-M Quartet model (Tan, Teo, Choy, & Ong, in press) to design meaningful integrated STEM tasks and engage in peer critique of the tasks that are designed. They will also be engaged in a series of ready-made STEM tasks to understand the learning experience that their students will undergo.

This course is the first of a three-part series on using the BBC Micro:bit microcontroller in STEM-related activities. This novice-level course is aimed at upper primary and secondary teachers interested in getting started on learning about and coding for the Micro:bit. No prior experience with the Micro:bit is required. This course will equip participants with the essential skills to set up and code simple but functional apps on the Micro:bit as well as provide the familiarity for use in STEM-related activities covered in the next course in the series.

Course date(s): 10 May 2022 (closing date 15 April)
Duration: 3 hours

This course is the second of a three-part series on using the BBC Micro:bit microcontroller in STEM-related activities. This course is aimed at upper primary and secondary teachers interested in designing school-based STEM activities that utilise the Micro:bit. Making use of an array of built-in sensors as well as external add-on sensor modules, simple scientific instruments can be constructed. In making and coding such devices that sense and/or measure real-world phenomena, learners have the opportunity to connect and apply their knowledge in science, technology and mathematics in a meaningful way. Basic familiarity with coding for the Micro:bit would be useful. It would be beneficial if participants can attend the first course in this series beforehand.

Course date(s): 17 May 2022 (closing date 19 April)
Duration: 3 hours

This course is the third of a three-part series on using the BBC Micro:bit microcontroller in STEM-related activities. This course is aimed at upper primary and secondary teachers interested in designing school-based STEM activities that utilise the Micro:bit as a platform for recording sensor data that can be used for analytical purposes. This course builds on the second course in the series, hence, participants should have attended Micro:bit STEM 2 or else be familiar with the use of external electronic sensor modules and comfortable with coding for the Micro:bit. Developing a datalogger based on the Micro:bit gives learners the opportunity to connect and apply their knowledge in science, technology and mathematics in a concrete way while equipping them with the skills and potential to innovate and develop whatever device or product they can imagine.

Course date(s): 24 May 2022 (closing date 26 April)
Duration: 3 hours

STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) tasks should explicitly integrate two or more of the four S-T-E-M disciplines. In this course, participants will learn how the meriSTEM@NIE STEM Quartet framework is used to guide the design and implementation of a task that integrates all four disciplines in solving an authentic problem. During the course, participants will have hands-on experience in designing and implementing an integrated STEM task to solve a real-world problem. Learning objectives from science, mathematics, and design and technology will be addressed in the task. The conceptual, epistemic and social affordances of the STEM task will be discussed.

Course date(s): 23 - 31 May 2022
Duration: 16 hours

The course will examine the lower secondary Food and Consumer Education and the upper secondary Food and Nutrition syllabuses. Appropriate application of STEM will be made relevant to the two subjects. Strategies and methods to teach the basic principles of food management and preparation, organisation of investigative and practical work will be demonstrated and practiced. There will be discussion on the assessment and examination used in the subjects.

Designing meaningful students’ learning experiences in integrated STEM lessons require attention to three keys of (1) planning meaningful group discussions, (2) helping students to identify problems and trade-offs, and (3) giving specific feedback to students’ ideas and artefacts. In this workshop, participants will learn strategies to facilitate integrated STEM learning experiences that are more student-centred.

In this course, the participants will acquire the knowledge and skills needed to design and conduct integrated STEM lessons that illustrate the idea of scientific modelling. Specifically, the participants will learn how to perform simple predictive coding. They will gain lesson ideas on how to use predictive coding to develop computational thinking. They will appreciate the integration of mathematics, science, and technology in building models – a practice that scientists, mathematicians, and computer scientists engage to create models for making predictions, construct explanations, and illustrate concepts. The participants will appreciate that models are constructed and hence, can be subjected to change over time.