Give Real, Problem Focused, Technology Infused and Integrated STEM a Go! What STEM Should Be... With an increased demand for STEM/STEAM Education around the world, governments, schools and parents want to have a clear insight into STEM education. Will STEM equip our kids with the 21st century skills which they need to face the challenge of artificial intelligence (AI)? How should a project-based STEM program be delivered which can cover cross-disciplinary subjects from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics? How should the program be designed to encourage students to think, innovate and ignite their passion for lifelong self-driven learning? As a leading STEM initiative in Australia, our three years of intensive teaching along with my personal observation and exploration has given me an insight into what STEM education should be. Along this amazing journey, my team has witnessed kids be energised, inspired and empowered by our systematically designed program. Parents have also given very positive feedback about their children’s learning outcomes. Most of the students are well engaged in the STEM topics and improve their communication, collaboration, complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity (5C) capabilities as well as logical thinking, research and hands-on skills. Their remarkable achievements show how exciting, creative and challenging these areas can be. STEM focuses on authentic learning. How does Maths work? Do memorised mathematics formulas and calculation rules have real applications in real life? How can we use our learned knowledge to discover and change the world? These questions have been asked for generations by those exposed to the traditional rote learning environment. In our program design, by introducing genuine working life practices and processes into learning situations, we intentionally lead the students to make a clear connection between STEM subjects and real-world problems. For example, in the ‘reverse parking’ project, negative number, angle, speed, time and distance concepts are introduced. To implement a successful reverse parking program, students are asked to adjust the speed and time to meet the correct angle (45 degrees) and determine a suitable distance from the end of the space by which to stop. In this junior level class (school year 1-2) project, we also use a clock as an example to further demonstrate the application of angles. Such an example originates from daily life as well as incorporating the Australian Curriculum learning areas of Mathematics, Science and Technologies, measurement and geometry, and describing the position of the hands on an analog clock when reading hour time.

Case study 1: using reverse parking to explain how maths works. In the class, instruction, demonstration, practice, understanding and application form our STEM learning process in a pedagogically structured method.

STEM integrates coding skill: Coding has become a vital skill for our kids. The best way to deliver coding learning is not just about teaching how to type lines of code or get to know more programming languages. It is more about teaching children how to think logically, code effectively and build perseverance and resilience in his/her debugging phases. We integrate coding learning via a robot or other education kits. In this manner, the real time feedback from the robot can significantly increase the authenticity of learning, which culminates in building the

students’ cognitive processes.

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STEM and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Learning coding through STEM projects, where the students learn how to set the speed of the motors, how battery power level affect the sensitivity of the sensors and how different surface affect the distance of robot can travel with the same commands. By combining digital experience with real-world interactions, coding, logic and reasoning becomes a key methodology in implementing the practical application of learned skills. Case study 2: Measuring the distance on various surfaces (carpet, timber floor etc.), the students can

understand the concept of friction and how it affects the mBot performance even when all the factors in the code are the same. STEM delivers personalised learning STEM can help the teachers take advantage of each student’s unique character and inspire learners to come up with their own ways of approaching and solving problems. It allows them to explore according to their own curiosity. During the project process, it is common to design something based on the project requirement, test it, find a problem, and then go back to earlier steps to make an improvement or totally change the original design. This iterative way of working has no final solution defined by the teacher or the

standardised examination. In this way teachers can spend less time on rote memorisation and more on supporting students in how to apply critical-thinking in a way that supports real world skills. Building medieval catapult projects in our Intermediate level (school year 5-6) program allows students to explore according to their own curiosity. Students in the classrooms understand the problems to be overcome and where to find resources to help them learn more. Just as importantly, they're given time to come up with their own solution. The enthusiasm was contagious for everyone in the room. They learn more about the topic and also gain experience trialling different processes.

Case study 3: A classic example of personalised learning via building a medieval catapult. We found that such a methodology (prepare hypothesis, conduct experiment, refine and repeat) has the potential to drive breakthrough results for students, enabling students to choose what, how, when and where they learn.

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STEM covers a wider range of topics

Integrating a wider range of scientific topics, looking at other areas of science, engineering, technology even the historic timeline of a technological development and combining with real world applications, the theories and the knowledge have immediate utility value and are evident in the learning situation. By using enriching learning methods such as playing an interesting video of the relevant topic and discussing the broader questions: what do you think the chance (probability) is to get the same flavour lollipop on the two plates at one time (spin the wheel project)? Can you give me some examples of the use of screws in your home? The inquiry learning method is to broaden expectations and to lead the students to gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Spin the wheel project is designed for Y 1 - 6 students and their parents to understand the pedagogically meaningful methods of our STEM program. The information and skills to be learned in the class can be directly applied across borders between subjects and outside the classroom through a natural transfer.

Case study 4: Spin the wheel project (available at: https://itaedu.org/document/Spin_the_Wheel_Project.pdf) is designed to fill student up with curiosity and provide opportunities to collaborate to solve problems in a creative approach. It covers multiple discipline subjects such as Physics, Maths, Mechanical Engineering, Arts, Coding etc. in a single project. Conclusion: A well designed STEM program is able to identify and maximise student passion and creativity and facilitate real world skills in learning activities. Student engagement is very high, with the students independently deriving wide and varied ideas, many of which we, adults, never would have thought of ourselves when the projects were designed. Introduce STEM to kids from a young age and they will definitely surprise you. AboutAuthor: MatthewPang(DrLolly),founderofInnovativeTechnologyAcademy(itaedu.org),holdsaPhDdegreefromtheUniversityofSydney(USYD).Hehassevenyears’experienceteachinginuniversities.Hehastaughtover1000undergraduatesandpostgraduatesacross5disciplines.HeisthefirstChineseScholartoreceivethe‘ExcellentTeaching’awardfromtheFacultyofEngineeringandInformationTechnologyatUSYD.Inthepastthreeyears,Histeamhastaughtandfosteredover1000primaryandsecondaryschoolstudentstofindsuitablestudypathways,andhasampleexperienceteachingteenagers.

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