Short-term effects of a classroom-based STEAM program using robotic kits on children in South Korea

Abstract

Background Despite the recent emphasis on technology and engineering in early childhood education, the importance of teaching relevant concepts in early education has been underappreciated in South Korea. This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) program integrated into the national curriculum in a Korean early childhood education setting. Children aged 5–6 years (231 girls and 219 boys; treatment group: 334 children; control group: 116 children) were tested on computational thinking, vocabulary, numeracy, self-regulation, and social behavior before and after receiving STEAM curriculum that included robotics activities or an equivalent curriculum. Results Findings revealed that among the outcome measures, young children in the treatment group exhibited significant increases in computational thinking and expressive vocabulary. Moreover, gender demonstrated a significant interaction effect with the increase in computational thinking as measured by an assessment developed for a specific robotic material as well as in self-regulation and social behavior. Conclusions This study provides empirical and comprehensive evidence regarding the effectiveness of an integrated STEAM program with developmentally appropriate robotic kits for young children.

Computational Thinking Through the Engineering Design Process in Chemistry Education

“…The CThink4CS 2 Module employs ionic cards to develop ionic equations rather than Scratch cards (Monjelat & Lantz-Andersson, 2020) and board game cards (Kuo & Hsu, 2020). According to Sung et al (2023), Bebras cards are intended to help students develop their CT skills while also introducing them to more advanced computing concepts. The unplugged activities of CThink4CS 2 Module are cost-effective because they utilize cards and other common classroom supplies, such as paper, pencils, and markers (Delal & Oner, 2020;Saxena et al, 2020).…”

“…In the LEGO robotics program, male students focused more on the operational aspects of robot assembly and coding, whereas female students emphasized group dynamics (Ardito et al, 2020). Nonetheless, other studies indicated that gender did not influence the CT skills of male and female students (Chongo et al, 2020;Sirakaya, 2020;Sung et al, 2023). To identify disparities between male and female students, it is necessary to perform comparisons between genders that are inconsistent in CT.…”

A case for co-construction with teachers in curricular reform: Introducing computer science in primary school

“…Therefore, in order to align with the current practice in the STEM education community which often employ the term gender and gender biases when actually gathering and analysing binary or biological sex data (e.g. Jensen et al, 2023;Malespina and Singh, 2023;Sung et al, 2023), we maintain the term gender, gender-biases and gendergaps when referring to our data and our analyses. 3.2 Results -The impact of teaching CS on student learning 3.2.1 Student learning and the influence of gender and when the test was taken (study 1a)…”