New Perspectives in Science Education

The purpose of this paper is to propose a pedagogical model where engineering provides the interconnection to integrate the topics of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The author will first present a brief discussion of NGSS (Next Generation Science Standars) which was developed in the United States as  a multi-state effort to create new science education standards to help students deeply understand core scientific concepts, to understand the scientific process of developing and testing ideas, and to have a greater ability to evaluate scientific evidence. Next a brief discussion of cognitve science is presented. Based on NGSS and cognitive theory the author will then derive an integrated pedagogy to use engineering and technology, such as drones, sensors, camera, iPhone, and radio waves, as the nexus to an integrated curriculum development for STEM.  Based on this pedagogy, one example developed by the author called “Drones  and Environmental Science,”  will be presented that uses a drone and related technology as an appropriate instructional delivery medium to apply cognitive science and NGSS to create environments that promote new perspectives in science education.

Keywords: NGSS, cognitive theories, drone, environmental science, pedagogy;