How Does STEM Education Improve Student Learning?
Learning about the various concepts of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics will boost your students’ confidence and empower them to advance in life. The STEM field of education is rapidly evolving, so educators focus on honing the students’ mathematical and scientific skills to help them stay prepared for future job opportunities.
However, the importance of STEM education goes beyond just securing jobs. Studies have found that when teachers use the STEM education interdisciplinary learning method in classes, it enhances students’ academic performance and improves their cognitive ability, both of which are essential for success in college and in their professional lives.
STEM education combines science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts to help children solve everyday problems. Over the last few years, many educational institutions in the US have adopted STEM education into their curriculum, and many more institutions are on the verge of doing the same.
But why are school authorities and even students interested in STEM education?
How Does STEM Education Improve Student Learning?
We will explore the reasons in this article.
5 Ways in Which STEM Education Enhances Student Learning
Developing and Honing Scientific Thinking Skills
Grasping scientific concepts becomes easier for students when they develop the skills researchers and scientists have to do their work. These skills include inferring, measuring, classifying, and predicting. A research study published in 2020 stated that STEM education had significantly enhanced students’ scientific processing skills. The researchers studied 39 students who had participated in a scientific undergraduate program over ten weeks.
During these ten weeks, the researchers asked the students to complete four activities, each dealing with real-life engineering issues. The participants of these studies had to solve these problems utilizing a five-stage inquiry cycle. The students at the end of the research said that STEM learning helped them solve the issues and motivated them to finish the entire course.
Enhances Team Collaboration
STEM education incorporates all the concepts of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and delivers them simply for the students to understand. Given that all students’ intellectual capability is not the same, they will need to work together to apply the STEM approach to solve problems. For example, when working on projects, the students will need to work side-by-side to solve complicated mathematical problems, record data, write reports, and give presentations.
The understanding and teamwork that students build among themselves from STEM learning will stay with them throughout life. In modern society, intellectual talent won’t do the job. Students will need to learn 21st-century skills in education, and STEM is an excellent way to go about it.
The current professional landscape relies on hard work and effective collaboration between different teams and departments that cannot be taught in a traditional classroom. Enrolling your students in STEM education courses is the best way to prepare them for the future.
Encourages Students to Experiment
Inventions and technological advancements in the last few decades would not have been possible without experimentation and risk-taking on the part of scientists and researchers. Many of these ideas were initially dismissed and not taken very seriously. However, these innovators persevered and, in the end, created something very unique.
Regardless of the result, this can-do attitude and passion for experimentation can be encouraged through STEM education during the K-12 years of a student’s life. This learning approach enables the students to take risks and experiment through projects and teamwork.
Boosts Critical Thinking in Students
To understand how the STEM learning approach impacts students’ critical thinking skills, researchers Filiz Gulhan and Yasemin Hacioglu studied 30 middle school students while they completed five engineering design activities.
To begin with, the researchers measured the subscales of critical thinking, such as analytical, truth-seeking, systematicity, open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, and self-confidence. Once the students finished their assignments, the researchers found that the research participants’ truth-seeking capabilities and open-mindedness had increased during this time.
According to the researchers, the students were always on a quest to find the truth and the best solution. They considered the opinions of all the group members before reaching a common conclusion.
Critical thinking helps students advance in science and math and enhances their ability to carry out deep discussions, analyze tests, and write essays. With the help of a STEM approach, teachers can help students improve their academic performance and character growth.
Improves Communication Skills
Communication is considered the most vital of all life skills. Possessing the confidence and ability to convey and discuss complex subjects with peers from all walks of life while learning from them is important to lead a successful life.
Project collaborations in STEM education boost confidence and social skills that will help your students open up to giving praises and receive constructive feedback positively.
In Conclusion
The importance and advantages of STEM education are not limited to just the points mentioned in the article. STEM and cultural competence programs offer new possibilities and opportunities to students.
Armed with enhanced problem-solving skills, your students will become more self-reliant to take on any challenge in school and in their future professional careers.