A breakthrough that has occurred in recent years is the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has affected various sectors of society, including the educational sector. It has prevented students from performing group-oriented hands-on activities and has eventually transformed their active learning environment in schools into virtual passive lectures at home. Therefore, to solve this impedance, we exercised several online STEM programs (five online STEM programs with repetitive cycles) for school students, including 140 students (middle and high school), 16 undergraduate (UG) secondary mentors, and 8 primary STEM professionals. Thus, the study revealed the results of a distinctive interactive online STEM teaching model that has been designed to overcome the virtual classroom’s impediments. The employed teaching model demonstrates an interactive learning environment that ensures students’ engagement, retention, and participation, driving them to STEM innovations. Various digital tools, including PowerPoint presentations, videos, online simulations, interactive quizzes, and innovative games were used as teaching aids. Both the synchronous and asynchronous means in a student-centered approach, along with the feedback mechanism, were implemented. Finally, the employed method’s effectiveness was revealed by the maximum student retention and STEM innovation rates, along with the model’s potentiality towards its replicability and sustainability. Thus, the outlook of such initiatives could further be broadened by its sustainability and replicability aspect towards vulnerable student communities such as academically introverted and specially challenged students.
An unprecedented turn in educational pedagogies due to the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the students’ learning process worldwide. This article describes developing a STEM-based online course during the schools’ closure in the COVID-19 epidemic to combat the virtual science classroom’s limitations that could promise an active STEM learning environment. This learning model of the online STEM-based course successfully developed and exercised on 38 primary–preparatory students helped them to overcome the decline in their learning productivity. Various digital learning resources, including PowerPoint presentations, videos, online simulations, interactive quizzes, and innovative games, were implemented as instructional tools to achieve the respective content objectives. A feedback mechanism methodology was executed to improve online instructional delivery and project learners’ role in a student-centered approach, thereby aiding in the course content’s qualitative assessment. The students’ learning behavior provided concrete insights into the program’s positive outcomes, witnessing minimal student withdrawals and maximum completed assignments. Conclusions had been drawn from the course assessment (by incorporating both synchronous and asynchronous means), student feedback, and SWOT analysis to evaluate the course’s effectiveness.
Following the launch of Qatar’s National Vision 2030, environmental development was highlighted as one of the Vision’s four pillars, emphasizing the importance of developing people’s awareness of their duty in maintaining the country’s environment for future generations. In addition, environmental education can be combined with various approaches, such as STEM and problem-solving skills, making it an excellent way to engage students in a sustainable program. A distinctive E-STEM program titled “Problem-Solving” (PS) was developed in Qatar amid regular educational reforms to improve primary school pupils’ problem-solving abilities. During this study, 346 kids (202 females and 144 males) from 14 different public and private primary schools were involved in STEM workshops on environmental issues, encouraging them to develop solutions to the problem. The study used a mixed-method approach to measure program efficacy, with a statistical analysis performed using data collected from four separate workshops over two years from 2018 to 2019. This research and development project used pre and post-questionnaires and a qualitative method for evaluating student problem-solving skills. The outcomes of the SWOT analysis also provided an overview of the program’s efficacy in involving students by demonstrating their collaborative problem-solving skills about environmental issues.
Covid-19 and the unprecedented shift in educational delivery, has revealed multiple perforations in the science-learning pedagogies. The technological replacements for a physical presence of an instructor and peer collaborated classroom could not retain student interaction and positive learning attitude as in the pre-Covid period. YSC STEM Digilearning Model, is an online voluntary summer course that was created to combat the respective hitches and was successfully implemented on 38 primary-preparatory students from diverse schools promising an active learning environment. Student Feedback mechanism approach was implemented throughout the course thereby providing voice to the students in the learner centered approach adopted by the STEM course. The course carried out diverse synchronous and asynchronous activities with positive student response as the study witnessed minimal student withdrawals and presentation of completed student assignments.
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