Outside-of-the-box stem teaching for primary school children in Serbia on topic Diversity of nature-Water

Abstract

It is well known that STEM education and its early implementation has great benefits for the development of thinking and reasoning skills in younger children, and that early and appropriate experiences can influence and foster interest in STEM. Also, advantages of STEM education are reflected in interdisciplinarity and connection to real life experiences [1,2]. In this study we conducted (2 nd grade students, N=29, Primary school “Moma Stanojlovic”, Kragujevac, Serbia) some hands-on activities that mimicked certain real-life scenarios in order to evaluate their impact on student motivation, perception and acquired knowledge. Faculty staff took the role of “STEM ambassadors” and with the help of teacher the experiments involving water cycle in nature, surface tension, capillary force, reflection, reaction medium and heat capacity were conducted through various game-like hands-on activities and demonstrations. The concept of inquiry-based teaching was used, and children were encouraged to ask questions, make suggestions and draw conclusions. Due to the young age of participants, the appropriate data were collected by the teacher through the interview. The results have shown that children gained more lasting knowledge and were highly collaborative and motivated to participate in all activities. It was noticed that the practical nature of proposed activities gave children the feeling of participating in a game or a free activity, so they were more engaged in their learning process, and it was perceived that hands-on activities better match the energy levels of children of that age and the need for a diversity of sensory stimuli.