Engaging Students in Science Using Project Olympiads: A case study in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Making science enjoyable inspires students to learn more. Out-of-class activities such as science fairs and Olympiads, serve as reasonable informal learning environments that demand attention. The association of students’ involvement in these activities with increased student interest in science followed by the selection of science-related careers, should motivate all in-charge stakeholders. In this work, we analysed the outcomes of the Bosnia Science Olympiad (BSO) as the first national Science Olympiad in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), aiming the improvement of science education and bringing different ethnic groups under the umbrella of science, in a post-conflict area. The two-day endeavour held in Sarajevo includes competition in four science-related categories (Environment, Engineering, Have an Idea, Web Design) and social activities. In this work, the comprehensive data, including participants’ gender, their ethnic background, cities, schools, and supervisors, over five years, was analysed. The number of participating high-school students increased from 78 to 143, of supervisors from 21 to 95, and of schools from 7 to 15, reaching a wide demographic acceptance to cover all ethnic regions in BiH. The relationship between gender and the selection of a category, shows bias of male participants towards Web Design (21%) and Engineering (40%), and of female students towards “Have an Idea” (40%) and Environment (44%) categories. The contribution of BSO choosing a science career, getting socialized without prejudices, and the improvement of students’ self-confidence, were as well addressed. Our work demonstrates a model work to successfully promote science in post-conflict settings.

STEM Career Interest of Kazakhstani Middle and High School Students

“…Students interest in STEM subjects vary according to gender [21]. Many studies support significant gender differences [22][23][24][25], while few studies found no gap or little gap [26,27].…”

Assessing Intuition Used Among Undergraduate Engineering Technology and Engineering Students

“…Affective intuition is heavily based on emotions to make decisions, while holistic abstract intuition uses non-analytical approaches to relate experiences to make decisions. Even though studies have found evidence that engineering technology students show a higher preference for a holistic type of intuition [9], [10], the teaching style and curriculum at this midwestern university may differ from others leading to a higher development on inferential intuition.…”

“…Research has validated intuition as a primary factor for decision-making [13]. There has also been evidence that shows intuition playing an essential role in engineering technology students' processes of thinking [7], [8], [9], [10].…”

“…Through a study based on survey and interview questions, one particular question gave insight into how engineering technology students would feel when required to solve an unfamiliar problem. Students responded that they would rely on prior knowledge and use their instincts to navigate that situation, demonstrating that engineering technology students used intuition when solving problems [9]. Using the Cognitive-Experiential Self Theory (CEST), another study showed that intuition was scored more frequently than cognition among a sample of engineering technology students [10].…”