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Kieran McGeown (Course Team Leader of Technology) and Damian
Knipe (Research Officer) have had a paper titled “An
Innovative Approach to Enhancing Pupil Engagement with Science
and Technology” accepted to the International Conference
“The Future of Education”, which will take place in
Florence, Italy on 13 – 14 June 2013. The paper will be
included in the thematic area: “Innovative Teaching and
Learning Methodologies”.
The paper’s abstract reads as follows:
AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO ENHANCING PUPIL
ENGAGEMENT WITH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Kieran
McGeown, Damian
Knipe
St Mary’s University College Belfast
Northern Ireland, UK
This paper is based on one aspect of a pilot project funded by
the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme, the title of which
is “Stimulating Science And Technology Competences Through
Innovative Means For Teaching And Learning” (STIMULA). A
report on the review of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics) published in Northern Ireland has the objective
of ensuring the future of STEM education within the region, with
the report suggesting that: “A key factor in enjoying STEM
is to increase the level of investigation and experimentation
in the classroom. Perhaps the single most recurring theme around
curriculum has been the importance of experimentation and practical
work in retaining a young person’s interest in STEM”
(DEL, DE 2009, p124). The specific focus of this paper reports
on the outcomes of a survey on young people’s perceptions
of science and technology and how these survey findings and relevant
literature informed the design and implementation of two science
and technology pilot projects for two Northern Ireland schools.
The survey was conducted with 1,125 pupils from 13 post-primary
schools in 5 European countries using a questionnaire, designed
for the pilot project, which was administered to 11-17 year old
pupils.
Relevant findings from the survey for this paper included: pupils
being more interested in science and technology at school when
working in teams on projects that involve testing and coming up
with solutions to problems; pupils seeing learning in science
and technology as contributing more to their understanding of
problem-solving and scientific and technological careers; pupils
claiming that science and technology offer the best way to understand
the world, make life comfortable, and improve our environment
thus benefiting society; pupils viewing those working in science
and technology as being creative and hard-working, with the most
popular career aspiration being a designer; and pupils wanting
their schools to offer more visits to specific locations associated
with science and technology that relate to their practical learning
in school where they have the opportunity to meet and listen to
science and technology experts.
One of the pilot projects involved the pupils investigating the
principles of generating electricity by means of building a model
of a hydroelectric turbine. The other pilot project facilitated
pupils building a micro-robot for the purposes of programming
it to complete a specific task. There was a cyclical learning
approach taken to the overall pedagogical strategy applied to
both projects. This involved pupils visiting two different locations
where a hydroelectric turbine and industrial robots were being
utilised for the purposes of increasing efficient use of resources
and generating economic benefits to the local community. The knowledge
gained by the pupils during these visits was then fed back into
the learning cycle as applied by the teachers in each school.
References
Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) and Department of
Education (DE) (2009) The Report of the STEM Review, Belfast Northern
Ireland, Department of Employment and Learning (DEL) and Bangor
Northern Ireland, Department of Education (DE).
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