Pixel International Conferences

Japan has a national curriculum guideline that is a standard issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the contents of school study must comply with it. In the science curriculum guideline, the relevance of society and life is emphasized, but in the actual many science lessons, students are learning to solve problems only in the context of science, not that of society and life. Therefore, we have developed a learning material that guides students to study science in the context of problem-solving in society and life, also conforms to the learning contents stipulated in the Japanese curriculum. In this study, we showed the theoretical framework of STEM education that applied to the learning material, and we will clarify concretely how STEM education was realized in Japanese science lesson. First, based on previous studies, we decided to adopt the context of problem-solving in society and life into science lessons and introduce engineering activities (e.g., Aydeniz, Cakmakci, 2017; Bybee, 2010; Roehrig et al., 2012). Next, we decided to use a model of Learning-by-Design (LBD) that proposed by Kolodner (2002) as a theoretical framework for STEM education, which fits to the purpose of this study. Based on these examinations, we have developed a learning material named "Science MIRAI" that includes Gigo blocks (made in Taiwan), a control box with Arduino for programming, a lesson plan conforms to the Japanese curriculum, and the worksheets. There are three important points in the development of the learning material; (1) selection of learning contents of electromagnet, (2) adopting the context of separation of steel and aluminum cans for recycling, (3) devising how to introduce engineering while keeping the learning contents of science. The learning plan of "Science MIRAI" based on LDB enabled students to learn science in the context of the problem-solving in society and life, triggered by engineering activities. Moreover, the result showed the science lesson adopted engineering has raised students' awareness of science practicality.

Keywords: STEM, LBD, relevance of society and life, problem solving, engineering.

References:

Aydeniz, M., Cakmakci, G. (2017): Integrating engineering concepts and practices into science education: Challenges and Opportunities, In Taber, K. S., Akpan, B. (Eds.), Science Education, 221-232, Brill Sense.

Bybee, R. W. (2010): What is STEM education?. Science, 329(5995), 996.

Kolodner, J. L. (2002): Learning by Design™: Iterations of Design Challenges for Better Learning of Science Skills. Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society, 9(3), 338-350.

Roehrig, G. H., Moore, T. J., Wang, H. H., Park, M. S. (2012): Is adding the E enough?: Investigating the impact of K-12 engineering standards on the implementation of STEM integration. School Science and Mathematics, 112, 31-44.