Developing STEM Activities with Design-Focused Thinking Approach

Abstract

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education aims to blend various courses through interdisciplinary cooperation at the secondary level. When we look at the STEM education and course materials given to teachers in Turkey, it is observed that they are insufficient for branches such as Technology and Design, Turkish and English, where they focus on science and mathematics branches. This indicates that teachers from different branches should cooperate more among themselves. The use of creative processes that prioritize active participation of students and design methods that support these processes for different purposes in education is increasing; From this point of view, design is one of the most important fields that will contribute to interdisciplinary education. This study uses the design thinking approach for secondary school teachers from different disciplines to develop and implement STEM activities. The aim of the research is to investigate the effects of design thinking approach on STEM education. In order to test the design thinking method developed within the scope of the research, a workshop was held with 16 teachers in 2022 and a STEM activity study was conducted with the students. Co-design workshops were organized with 6 teachers and 5 different branch teachers, as well as a researcher-designer, and in these workshops, the teachers prepared a lesson plan for STEM activities with Design Thinking Approach for 5th, 6th and 7th grade students using the developed method. These lesson plans, which were prepared afterwards, will be applied in different class groups in a class of 25 people and a design has been revealed by the students. This study will deal with the analysis and evaluation of data obtained from co-design workshops, focus group, group interviews, individual interviews, instant messaging with mobile device and observations. Findings from the research will show that the application of the design thinking approach in STEM education offers solutions to the challenging aspects of STEM education, such as the collaboration of teachers, the blending of disciplines, and the development and implementation of a STEM activity plan appropriate for the level of students. This study is to design and implement STEM activity with Design Thinking Approach with Teachers and Students suitable for secondary school level.