As modern society continues to evolve, more all-round talents will be needed in the future, and students with only a single skill will inevitably be at a disadvantage. STEM education hopes to integrate knowledge from different disciplines and improve students' problem-solving abilities in different fields; while science and technology are developing rapidly, STEM education encourages students to develop curiosity and practical abilities, which also enables students to keep up with the pace of social development, thereby improving their personal Competitiveness. The concept of STEM education has gradually been adopted by more and more educational institutions in recent years. It is believed that SETM will become one of the important directions of educational development in the near future. Allowing children to learn STEM can help them learn and practice multi-perspective thinking early, so that they can remain calm even if they are in different environments in the future.
"STEM" consists of the abbreviation of four words: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This concept was proposed by the National Science Foundation in the report "Shaping the Future World". The core concept is to flexibly use and integrate knowledge from different disciplines to solve problems, thereby strengthening students' problem-solving abilities and obtaining the best solutions. As STEM concepts continue to develop and become more popular, the content continues to evolve. In recent years, some people have proposed the concept of STEM+ART, which transforms STEM from a purely scientific level into an all-round educational concept (STEAM).
Four major benefits of STEM
STEM education has four major benefits, namely cultivating students’ creativity, communication skills, hands-on ability and learning from mistakes . The immutable standard answers in the test papers are not conducive to students' creativity, so Hong Kong education is often called "cramming education".
1.Creativity
After receiving STEM education, students can have the ability to think from multiple perspectives, and be able to integrate and apply knowledge from different fields to think about problems, allowing them to break out of the inherent framework and look for more possibilities. For example, in the bridge construction challenge, STEM students will also consider the aesthetics of the bridge after successfully building the bridge. It can be seen that students' new thinking through STEM helps them use knowledge from different disciplines to find a creative solution.
2.Manual ability
In addition to cultivating students' creativity, part of creativity comes from "hands-on ability." Therefore, cultivating hands-on skills is one of the focuses of STEM education. Hands-on ability does not require complex operations, understanding the principles behind them is more important ! For example, the building block slide can explore students' hands-on ability and creativity. It helps them understand basic mechanical principles (science) by sliding the balls and building slides. At the same time, the color matching of the slide also tests creativity (art), so students The hands-on ability can discover wisdom and problem-solving abilities in different fields.
3. Know how to learn from mistakes
"Experimentation" is an essential element of STEM education. A piece of paper, through different folding methods and simple aerodynamics, the paper airplane will have different flight heights. Students need to try repeatedly and think about the reasons for failure in order to clarify the secrets and methods of flying higher. It can be seen that success is often based on countless trials and failures. STEM education can cultivate students' courage to try boldly and put their ideas into practice. Students will encounter many problems and setbacks during their growth. As long as they understand the reasons for failure and learn from their mistakes, they can guide students to the right path.
4. Communication skills
STEM education values teamwork, so when faced with problems, students need to leverage their strengths in different fields, work together to complete tasks, and improve communication skills in the process of cooperation. In addition, when a team encounters difficulties, STEM education encourages members to use different perspectives to solve problems. Therefore, members may have differences due to different solutions. This process requires mutual cooperation and compromise between members, so that students Opportunities to understand and incorporate other people's ideas develop students' team spirit.
What can parents do for students’ STEM education?
STEM education integrates knowledge from different disciplines, and interdisciplinary education requires a variety of knowledge. Therefore, as parents, we should take the initiative to lead students to contact different types of knowledge and try to discover the parts that interest students. For example, by participating in STEM-related games with students to transfer STEM knowledge, this can not only increase students' interest in learning, but also attract students to actively participate in learning; learning in games indirectly allows students to learn more knowledge, such as in problem-solving games Improve students' thinking ability and cultivate creativity in piecing together games, so that they can use their talents in future STEM education and personal growth.
STEM education encourages students to solve problems without fear of making mistakes. Therefore, parents need to accompany students to solve problems and provide support when appropriate.
- When students encounter difficulties, parents should try to ask questions, let students think when answering questions, and indirectly guide students to break through their inherent thinking.
- Provide students with confidence when they encounter difficulties, encourage and guide students to start over when they encounter setbacks, and try to use STEM thinking to solve problems, thereby improving personal problem-solving abilities.
