“Have I done anything like a scientist or an engineer?” Students' reflections with STEM activities

Tian LUO, Wing Mui Winnie SO

Research output: Contribution to conferencePapers

Abstract

Recruiting talents into STEM fields is a major goal in STEM education. To achieve this, it is important to understand how students perceive their engagement in STEM in light of their understanding of STEM professionals’ work. This study aims at exploring whether and how students relate their experiences in a STEM project with their understanding of scientists’ and engineer’s work. A randomly selected sample of 143 4th to 6th grade students participating in a STEM fair was interviewed. Questions like “What has your group done in the project that resembles a scientist’/ an engineers’ work?” were asked and the interview data were coded. In addition, students' submitted reports of their STEM projects were analyzed to examine the nature of students’ engagement in the STEM projects. Results show that 84.4% students think that their group has done things like scientists in the STEM projects. And 60.6% students think that they have done things like engineers. Patterns and diversity of students’ identified scientific and engineering practices from the interviews will also be discussed. Copyright © 2017 WERA-HKERA.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2017
EventWERA Focal Meeting & HKERA International Conference 2017 = 世界教育研究學會會議暨香港教育研究學會國際研討會2017 - The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Duration: 30 Nov 201702 Dec 2017
https://www.eduhk.hk/wera_hkera2017/index.php

Conference

ConferenceWERA Focal Meeting & HKERA International Conference 2017 = 世界教育研究學會會議暨香港教育研究學會國際研討會2017
Abbreviated titleWERA-HKERA 2017
Country/TerritoryHong Kong
Period30/11/1702/12/17
Internet address

Citation

Luo, T., & So, W. M. W. (2017, November). “Have I done anything like a scientist or an engineer?” Students' reflections with STEM activities. Paper presented at the WERA Focal Meeting & HKERA International Conference 2017 (WERA-HKERA 2017): Innovation, Reform and Education Change in a Contemporary World, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

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