Pre-conference Workshop by Keynote Speaker Gillian Roehrig [Ticketed]

Characteristics of High Quality Integrated STEM Curriculum

In this workshop, participants will learn about the characteristics of quality integrated STEM curriculum through the K-12 Integrated STEM Framework (Roehrig et al., 2021). This framework builds upon the extant integrated STEM literature to describe seven central characteristics of integrated STEM: (a) centrality of engineering design, (b) driven by authentic problems, (c) context integration, (d) content integration, (e) STEM practices, (f) twenty-first century skills, and (g) informing students about STEM careers. The integrated STEM framework is intended to provide more specific guidance to educators about the curriculum development and implementation. The framework will be illustrated by engaging participants in an exemplar integrated STEM curriculum. Participants will engage in some of the hands-on activities and reflect on the activities using the Integrated STEM Framework.

Pre-conference Workshop by Keynote Speaker Lyn D. English [Ticketed]

Exploring and Developing STEM-based Problems that Challenge Students’ Thinking

This International STEM Education workshop will comprise four components as follows:

1. a brief review of traditional problem solving where problems tend to be closed, have only one correct answer, and require the application of previously taught procedures. These problems tend not to promote different ways of thinking or encourage development of new concepts.
2. a brief consideration of why traditional problem solving is inadequate for today’s rapidly changing world.
3. an overview of different ways of thinking, to be addressed more fully in the plenary.
4. exploration of interactive STEM-based problems that encourage both disciplinary knowledge growth and application, and different ways of thinking. It is envisaged that participants will engage in working a sample of such problems, together with designing their own examples. Included in this component will be shared ideas on assessing students’ responses.

If possible, it would be helpful if participants could bring samples of problems implemented in their classrooms/school systems. These could be explored during the workshop and adapted to encourage more challenging problem solving and thinking skills.

Pre-conference Workshop by Keynote Speaker Jinwoong Song [Ticketed]

Developing informal STEAM programmes for scientific engagement and practice: Lessons from the 'Doing Science, the Gangnam Style' project

In many countries, including Korea, STE(A)M education activities are still limited to the school education environment. As modern society changes into a life-long learning society, the scene of STE(A)M education also needs to take place in the context of non-formal education settings. In particular, in a future society where 'scientific participation and practice' is emphasized more and more, a key question becomes what kind of STEM learning experience not only for students but also for citizens need. In this workshop, how to develop an informal STEAM education program for 'scientific participation and practice' is going to be discussed, based on the experience of operating 'Doing Science, the Gangnam Style' Project, a university-community collaborative STEAM education program for elementary and middle school students and the general public that has been running since 2022. We plan to share our experiences of and lessons from the problems encountered when developing and operating. Participants will have the opportunity to explore appropriate topics and methods of STEM education programs that start from the context of their own local community and connect to global STEM issues.

Pre-conference Workshop by Stick'Em, Singapore [Ticketed]

Hands-on Workshop with STEAM Kit

At Stick ‘Em, our mission is to make quality STEAM education accessible to ALL. Besides an affordable STEAM Kit to build things with, our online platform provides children with super fun activities and challenges. Put together, our STEAM ecosystem teaches them scientific concepts while developing their soft skills such as creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and more. With this kind of holistic approach, our aim is to guide their growth into becoming problem solvers for our future.

Stick ‘Em is currently active in 7 countries across SEA with thousands of students in partnership with various schools and organisations. We will expand globally with a consumer oriented product in 2025 to make a significant dent to the 1B over children who don’t have access to STEAM education right now.

During this 3 hour workshop, participants will have hands-on experience with block coding to program a robot to perform various tasks to solve authentic problems related to the theme of environmental sustainability. This curriculum that is designed for K-12 students will illuminate how problem/solution/user centric approaches can be seamlessly incorporated into the STEM curriculum anywhere.

Pre-conference Workshop by Timothy T. M. Tan and Yong Sim Ng [Ticketed]

Incorporating Physical Computing Devices and Simple Coding into STEM Learning Activities

Digital literacy is a core competency in the current global landscape driven by technological advances. STEM curricula with a focus on harnessing technological solutions for authentic problem-solving affords students opportunities to grow their digital competencies. Physical computing devices such as the BBC micro:bit and the MakeBlock HaloCode are pedagogically-oriented technological tools that teachers can include in integrated STEM lessons to imbue such skills and mindsets of change. In this workshop, the participants will have hands-on experience with these devices and their easy-to-learn visual coding interface. Examples of integrated STEM curriculum materials that involve these devices in authentic problem-solving will be shared. This workshop is suitable for participants with little to no knowledge of coding but have an interest in technology-infused STEM curriculum activities.

NOTE: For all queries and help, the Secretariat is located in TR714 (Block 7, ground floor)

Gender Equity Related to Integrated STEM in K-12 Classrooms

Recent educational reforms in the United States promote integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as a means of remaining globally competitive and advancing the knowledge and thinking skills of all students (National Research Council, 2012). However, despite efforts to improve access and quality of STEM education, women continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields (National Science Foundation, 2017). Given the prevalence of small group activities in K-12 STEM instruction, it is important to understand how students engage in epistemic discourse as they develop design solutions to real-world problems and engage in authentic STEM practices, parallel to those of STEM professionals. Given issues with gender equity in STEM, it is particularly important to consider the engagement of girls in STEM discourse and the impact on their developing STEM identities.

Workshop: Exploring Robotics with Texas Instruments Innovator Technology

Presenter: Mr Eric Chin

Synopsis:

Exploring STEM experiences in developing students’ abilities to collaborate, think imaginatively and problem-solving skills by using TI-Innovator Rover.  Among the hands-on activities, the presenter will use the Python code to program the TI-Innovator Rover.  At the end of the workshop, you may get some ideas how TI-Innovator Rover can bring excitement and critical thinking to your math and science class in secondary school.

Workshop: Igniting Young Minds: A Project-Based Learning Approach promoting Design Thinking with Robotics

Presenter: Andy Lee

Synopsis:

This interactive workshop equips educators with a project-based learning (PBL) approach that integrates Robotics and design thinking.

In this session, you will:

• Explore the foundations of VEX robotics, gaining a hands-on understanding of the platform and its capabilities.
• Discover how to weave computational thinking principles into VEX activities, empowering students to code, sequence, and troubleshoot effectively.
• Delve into the design thinking framework and its application in robotics projects.
• Engage in a collaborative activity, applying design thinking to tackle a complex problem and build a VEX robot solution.
• Leave with a comprehensive toolkit including project ideas, curriculum resources, and strategies to implement this approach in your classroom.

This workshop is ideal for educators who:

• Want to introduce or enhance their use of Robotics in the classroom.
• Seek to integrate computational thinking and design thinking into STEM lessons.
• Desire to foster a project-based learning environment that encourages collaboration and problem-solving.

Participants will gain:

• Practical knowledge of VEX robotics and its educational applications.
• Effective strategies to integrate computational thinking into VEX activities.
• A step-by-step approach to implementing design thinking in project-based learning.
• Ready-to-use resources for immediate classroom implementation.

Get ready to transform your classroom into a hub of innovation and empower your students to become the next generation of STEM leaders!

Workshop: The DOST–SEI STEM Resources for Teaching and Learning

Presenters: Josephine S. Feliciano, Michael Telesforo

Synopsis:

The Innovations Unit (IU) of the DOST-SEI - Science Education Division and Innovations Division (SEID) develops and produce educational resources, models  and strategies to support teaching and learning of science and mathematics from pre-school to Grade 12 through prints, interactive multimedia and immersive technology platforms. Among these are the DOST Courseware, Strategic Intervention Material for Teaching with Augmented Reality (SIMATAR), Virtual Laboratory Application in Science (VLAS) for elementary and high school along with Bukas-Tuklas and Storybooks  for pre-school. These resources are available through the institute’s download site and online stores for free. An orientation or briefing will be conducted to give overview of each of the resource. After which, hands-on activities with the participants will be conducted using the SIMATAR to be followed by synthesis, Q and A, and distribution of free kits.

Workshop: Networking Interfaces for Digital STEM Education

Presenter: Dr. Andreas Kastner

Synopsis:

Digital technology is meanwhile widely used for teaching – anyhow in most cases only in an one-dimensional way: digital documents are replacing books, instead of writing on a paper it is writing on a tablet, instead of connecting a device via USB you connect now via Bluetooth.

The many additional advantages are rarely used. One possible advantage – networking interfaces – should be viewed under different perspectives:

1.         Preparation of a cloud-based teaching unit which combines different digital (but also analogue) technologies together – including networking devices. The used worksheets are bidirectional, i.e. they can configure the device for the experiment already and also they can record the data directly into the worksheet, where there are exactly the tools prepared, which are needed for evaluation of the data.

2.         Networking interfaces from the view of the teacher: the teacher has always the view to all interfaces at the same time. He/she has the possibility to assist the student individually directly from his workstation, which could be a PC, a tablet or just his mobile phone. After the experiment he can collect and compare the measurements of the different groups and discuss about the results. By selecting different parameters for each group physical laws can be impressively demonstrated.

3.         Networking interfaces from the view of the students: in current technologies one interface can deliver its data only to one device – either via USB or Bluetooth. Networking interfaces can share measurement results to a whole group of students. So even a group of students is working with the same equipment, everybody in the group has the possibility of an individual evaluation and interpretation of the measured data. So the important soft skill of teamwork is combined with an individual evaluation of each student.

All this functionality is embedded in an open system, which allows sharing teaching units between the teachers. It is also possible to network teaching institutes together and organize equipment in a cost-efficient way or implement experiments within curricula as teaching units in a very fast way.

LD Didactic GmbH digital teaching solutions link laboratory equipment, experimental manuals, content management experiment preparation, experiment execution and evaluation to one platform with the use of networking interfaces.

Workshop: Sensor technology for the Classroom

Presenters: Vinnie Sim and Kristin Goh

Synopsis: 

“The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life” - Bill Gates

Sensors are used everywhere in our everyday lives, for example in the monitoring of the fridge temperature or in the monitoring the humidity in a building. With the increased need for measurement and advancement in technology, the cost of production of sensors has reduced significantly over the years providing consumers access to high quality sensors at affordable prices. As such, educators now are able can introduce various types of sensors into the classroom and expose students earlier to the various sensor technologies available in the market. In this workshop, we will explore the various sensor technologies and the instruments available in the marketplace which educators can use and introduce into the classroom.

The topics we will cover in this workshop are as follows:

(1) Temperature measurement and the sensors available

       (a) Temperature monitoring methods and instruments for:

               (i) Basic monitoring

               (ii) Datalogger monitoring

               (iii) Cloud (IoT) monitoring

       (b) Case study (I): Cold Chain Monitoring and the temperature sensors involved

       (c) Case study (II) : Vaccine Cold Chain solution

(2) Humidity measurement and the sensors available

(3) Wind Speed measurement and the sensors available

(4) Light measurement and the sensors available

(5) Moisture measurement and the sensors available

(6) Water Quality measurement and the sensors available

(7) Case study (III): From Farm to Fork – The Journey through High Tech Farming and the sensors involved

Separately and Together: The Dilemmas of STEM Education

Today, STEM education has become an irreversible global trend. It has become a ‘slogan’ for reforming current school and university education in both so-called developed and developing countries. STEM education is similar to the STS education of the 1980s and 1990s in that it emphasizes its integrated approaches and social contexts, but is different in that its core subjects go beyond science to include mathematics and engineering. In addition, the dilemmas surrounding the nature and methods of STEM education still continue. The first dilemma is whether the focus of STEM education should be on expanding its scope in curriculum or reforming its essential methods in teaching. The second dilemma is that mathematics, science, and engineering, the components of STEM, have not only common features but also significant differences in their natures. If we emphasize the common features, it is easy to miss the nature of individual disciplines, and vice versa. The third dilemma is that the nature of each individual discipline itself has been fundamentally changing through the second half of the 20th century. What STEM educators think of as their respective fields of study is no longer consistent with that of the 21st century. In this presentation, I will look back on the historical developments of emphasizing the social relevance of science in school education, compare the features of STEM disciplines, and explore its practical future direction by focusing on the ‘participation and action’ dimension of STEM education.

Noticing Affordances for Developing Integrated STEM Mindsets through "Day-to-Day Classroom" Mathematics Tasks

There have been calls for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) educators to design learning experiences around authentic integrated STEM tasks—those that involve two or more disciplines—to empower our learners to develop productive mindsets or habits of mind necessary for navigating through a highly complex and uncertain world. Much of our efforts revolves around designing integrated STEM tasks that centre around solving a complex persistent problem, developing and enhancing existing solutions, or designing for specific users in different contexts. Designing and implementing such integrated STEM tasks poses several challenges for teachers and such approaches often engender a polarising discourse between integrated STEM tasks and "day-to-day classroom" tasks. This gap between integrated STEM tasks and "day-to-day classroom" tasks is even more evident in mathematics classrooms. With the aim of developing productive integrated STEM mindsets, I wonder if we can challenge this limiting thinking and re-envision how affordances of "day-to-day classroom" mathematics tasks can be harnessed differently. In this presentation, I will add to this ongoing conversation by considering and illustrating how these "day-to-day classroom" mathematics tasks can complement integrated STEM tasks to make STEM learning an integral part of everyday mathematics learning experiences.

Workshop: AI Explorers: Journey into Education's Future!

Presenter(s): Ali Asghar and Joel Heng

Synopsis:

In our upcoming workshop, we will embark on an enlightening journey into the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its integration into education, using the revolutionary platform PictoBlox. PictoBlox is a block-based and Python programming platform designed for kids and teens, offering a creative and engaging approach to learning coding. With PictoBlox, students are empowered to explore various domains of 21st-century learning, including AI, Machine Learning, Robotics, and Game Designing, fostering a generation of tech-savvy innovators ready to tackle the challenges of the digital age. During the workshop's first segment, educators will delve into the fascinating world of Computer Vision, learning how to create their own Machine Learning models capable of identifying different objects. Through hands-on exploration, teachers will gain insights into the practical applications of Machine Learning, from driving autonomous cars to detecting cancer cells, illuminating the myriad possibilities of this transformative technology.

In the second segment, educators will apply their newfound knowledge to create Machine Learning models for a specific task: identifying different types of flowers. Aligned with science curriculum objectives, this activity enables teachers to delve into the intricacies of flower anatomy, life cycles, and ecological roles. By "training" their Machine Learning models to recognize and describe various flowers, educators not only enhance their understanding of AI but also gain practical insights into integrating technology into interdisciplinary learning experiences.

In conclusion, the workshop underscores the importance of innovative pedagogical approaches such as the QUACK methodology in harnessing the power of technology for educational purposes. By prioritizing maximum engagement and "learning through play," QUACK empowers educators to create immersive and meaningful learning experiences that resonate with students. Through the integration of PictoBlox and AI, educators are equipped with the tools necessary to cultivate a generation of critical thinkers, problem solvers, and digital innovators poised to thrive in the digital age and beyond. Join us as we embark on a transformative journey towards inspiring the next generation of AI enthusiasts and tech leaders.

Ways of Thinking in STEM-based Problem Solving

This presentation will argue that traditional notions of problem solving are outmoded, highlighting the need for more future-oriented approaches. Compelling evidence for reviewing and restructuring school problem-solving experiences can be found in the ill-conceived ways in which society dealt with Covid-19. A focus on ways of thinking in dealing with unforeseen problems has been lacking in education, despite an OECD report warning 13 years ago that “Education today is much more about ways of thinking which involve creative and critical approaches to problem-solving and decision-making.” The presentation will address this gap by examining various modes of thinking with-in STEM-based problem solving across the primary and middle grades. Consideration will be given to design and design-based thinking, systems thinking in dealing with complexity, critical and philosophical thinking, and adaptive and innovative thinking. In conjunction with fostering disciplinary and interdisciplinary concept development, ways of thinking can promote students’ competence in undertaking STEM-based investigations. Design-based thinking, for example, is increasingly prevalent in STEM and in society more broadly. Appropriate problem experiences can facilitate students’ learning about design and through design, with the former targeting the iterative processes of designing, and the latter, STEM knowledge application and development. Examples of investigations encouraging different ways of thinking across primary and middle grades will be explored, covering topics in mathematics education and STEM education more broadly, such as, mathematical representations, models and modelling, scheduling, measurement and geometry, spatial reasoning, coordinates, statistics, and earth science including energy sources.