The Design of a STEM-Oriented Project-Basedb Course for the Higher Grades of Elementary Schools

摘要

This study designs a STEM-oriented project-based learning course with hand-on projects for the higher grades of elementary schools to develop their interest in explorative learning by laying the foundations of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Students are grouped for the course projects to promote their collaborating capability. To investigate the feasibility of such course, this research uses a combination of qualitative research and quantitative research methods to conduct a triangulation on STEM scholastic achievements, teacher's survey, and participant observations. The results indicate, for the higher grades students of elementary schools, the STEM-oriented project-based course has positive and significant improvements on students' STEM scholastic achievements. By participant observations, experts find that students are willing to take the hands-on approach of learning by doing, which makes them find solutions to problems by themselves or with the help of group members. The teacher's survey also shows positive results. This research also observes a performance improvement on students' creativity, collaboration, and communication (3C) capability, but the overall improvement does not reach a significant level.