The following research paper will discuss the importance of promoting interdisciplinary learning amongst subjects to allow a deeper understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It is important to promote inquiry-based learning for students to think critically, be creative, experiment with new material and become innovators. By educating their peers through showcasing what they have learned they already promote transdisciplinary learning for subjects including Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Through means of varied activities, students can promote a deep understanding of learning STEM through Science week in Secondary School. Here an opportunity arises for them to share their ideas, opinions, and conclusions with the greater community by collaboration through Primary, Middle and Secondary schools. A guest speaker can be invited to introduce the STEM subjects and the importance of understanding how they work and related to the content of work they are studying and exploring.
Sharing their initial ideas will promote critical thinking and allow research opportunities for students to ask specific questions related to the content being studied and explored. They will be educationally challenged to share their conclusion and accept positive criticism through means of reflections and feedback shared by everyone within the educational community. Especially inquiry minds in Primary, Middle and peers within the Secondary Schools. Students will be challenged to know their content, elaborate on their research and present their findings for others to comment and present criticism.
Abstract
The following research paper will discuss the importance of promoting interdisciplinary learning amongst subjects to allow a deeper understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It is important to promote inquiry-based learning for students to think critically, be creative, experiment with new material and become innovators. By educating their peers through showcasing what they have learned they already promote transdisciplinary learning for subjects including Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Through means of varied activities, students can promote a deep understanding of learning STEM through Science week in Secondary School. Here an opportunity arises for them to share their ideas, opinions, and conclusions with the greater community by collaboration through Primary, Middle and Secondary schools. A guest speaker can be invited to introduce the STEM subjects and the importance of understanding how they work and related to the content of work they are studying and exploring.
Sharing their initial ideas will promote critical thinking and allow research opportunities for students to ask specific questions related to the content being studied and explored. They will be educationally challenged to share their conclusion and accept positive criticism through means of reflections and feedback shared by everyone within the educational community. Especially inquiry minds in Primary, Middle and peers within the Secondary Schools. Students will be challenged to know their content, elaborate on their research and present their findings for others to comment and present criticism.
Keywords: Innovation, Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary, STEM, Transdisciplinary
Introduction
In Secondary Schools, most teachers explore Science week, where students become excited, work on new experiments, conclude projects and assignments and share their ideas, and conclusions with recommendations to others, especially their peers. Through means of interdisciplinary teaching and learning students gain educational benefits from understanding a problem, exploring a hypothesis, and drawing positive conclusions through presenting authentic research, well researched and presented.
Promoting Interdisciplinary teaching and learning to promote STEM and outlined a Deeper Understanding.
By arranging collaboration between different departments through means of interdisciplinary learning and teaching students are given opportunities to explore new material, understand how STEM works, and how it completely fits within the IB Curriculum in Secondary Schools. From the beginning when it comes to planning, teachers need to meet at the beginning of the year to highlight the most important events, including Science and STEM week being celebrated throughout the school. To organise Science fairs, and invite potential guest speakers to address the whole school, allow opportunities for young inquiry minds especially in Primary and Middle School to become "effective communicators", be "principled" and complete "risk-takers" emphasising the learner profiles of IB curriculum, whilst stimulating and motivating students to be actively engaged in a variety of activities presented throughout the whole school as suggested by IBO (n.d.).
When teachers collaborate they promote opportunities for other students to ask questions related to what they are covering in Science and Mathematics, through concluding experiments in Science whilst understanding how equations and formulas work in Mathematics related to any topic being studied or covered. Planning is essential and preparing lesson plans that integrate STEM for opportunities for students to engage on all different levels. By creating a theme that will be covered, teachers can share their initial ideas of how to approach that particular event. In the case of Science and STEM week, all teachers including Faculties of Science can collaborate, which is important to promote a deeper understanding of STEM. They can plan how many stations they will have and stand for everyone to be involved. In my School when planning Science week we look at all the subjects to integrate somehow to internalise information in a fun and exciting way. In music students could be exploring how sound is created and the importance of sound energy. In Science they can understand the processes involved in creating waves, in mathematics, students can come up with equations they have all worked on with the same questions being posed. In Engineering students can experiment and create their instruments by recycling materials. In music we get the students to create their musical instruments by understanding to use coffee tins and making drums, creating their guitars by adding enough strings to create a sound, make their percussion instruments by creating their rattles and shakers by adding rice in different mediums and containers that are not being used, thus recycled.
Interdisciplinary learning allows students to have a better understanding of STEM by exploring the different disciplines and sharing their ideas, opinions, and findings. This promotes collaboration as outlined by Edutopia (2015); Skooler (2019); Tran (2015); Wang et al. (2020), which is imperative in Secondary School and beneficial for all the students in the school. In the IB Middle Years Programme, an emphasis is placed on using the various ATL Skills as suggested by IBO (2018). Students have to use their communication skills by sharing their ideas and opinions through reading and writing with others. They have to meet deadlines for concluding assignments and projects by using their self-management skills. They have to think critically by exploring their thinking skills through conducting experiments and research. They have to improve their social skills by sharing their work with others from different cultures and nationalities and encouraging them to “become independent life-long learners” as outlined by IBO (n.d., p. 1), emphasising their learner profiles and expectations outlined. Skooler (2019) confirms that: “By teaching collaboration - and using collaborative tools - we can bring every child into the problem-solving fold. Some students are naturally drawn to STEM” (p. 1).
When students use their collaboration skills they can easily collaborate through the use of technology and conclude group projects, which might involve Google Docs or Slides. They can insert pictures, highlight the importance of their research, and write and list their findings and discoveries with the necessary conclusions presented. Through means of reflection, students can comment on what they have learned, and what they want to add and make necessary suggestions for other team members and groups to improve. These skills being taught are beneficial in understanding and exploring STEM as suggested by Fostering interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the MYP (2014).
The conclusion is that transdisciplinary learning, and teaching students to learn from one another and can share their ideas, opinions and research findings, inevitably promotes STEM, and allows them to have a deeper understanding of how it works.
References
Edutopia. (2015, August 26). Teacher collaboration: spreading best practices school-wide [Video]. YouTube.
(2014, August 5). Fostering interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the MYP. IB Middle Years Programme. http://www.sas-teach.com/resources/MYP/Interdisciplinaryteachingandlearning.pdf
IBO. (n.d.). The IB Primary Years Programme. https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/publications/become-an-ib-school/ibpyp_en.pdf
IBO. (2018). Critical thinking skills in the IB Diploma Programme. IBO. https://www.ibo.org/contentassets/aec3ab0a46c844cb98842066f7c69a8c/rfp-ib-criti cal-thinking-2018-en.pdf
Skooler. (2019). Successful STEM education requires collaboration. https://skooler.com/successful-stem-education-requires-collaboration/
Tran. (2015). If you want better collaboration around STEM, build infrastructure. Download the document.
Wang, H. H., Charoenmuang, M., Knobloch, N.A., & Tormoehlen, R. L. (2020). Defining interdisciplinary collaboration based on high school teachers' beliefs and practices of STEM integration using a complex designed system. IJ STEM Ed 7, 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-019-0201-4
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- Citation du texte
- Mario Maxwell Müller (Auteur), 2022, A Deeper Understanding of STEM through Interdisciplinary Learning, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1281032