Abstract:

This paper describes an active learning methodology where STEM education activities based on the coordinated use of literacy tools, such as the flipped classroom, the Guided Problem Solving (GPS) and the monitoring of the learning process through the platform Socrative, are combined with the objective of turning students into protagonists of their own learning process experience. Originally developed for primary and secondary education, but having also been successfully applied in university education, these tools are well known in secondary education level, and in this sense, the designed methodology is perfectly applicable both in secondary education and in certain stages of primary education.

The methodology has been applied during the academic year 2017/18 by more than 400 students in 4 different subjects in the area of thermal engineering taught by 12 teachers who form the coordinated teaching group ikasTHERM.

The proposed active methodology is based on three pillars that are used in a combined and coordinated manner:
- FLEXIBLE ENVIRONMENT: Extraction of contents and theoretical developments from the group work space in the classroom to an individual and flexible work space for the student, through the use of a Youtube channel with a trilingual library of more than 150 videotutorials with the theoretical contents of the lessons.
- COLLABORATIVE WORK: a library of problems prepared for its resolution according to GPS technique, under the guide and assistance of the teacher and in small groups, to explore in classroom the practical application of the theoretical contents previously worked individually by the student outside class.
- MONITORING OF LEARNING: monitoring of the acquired learning was carried out by using the Socrative platform to individually answer in class a series of specifically designed questionnaires through the student's smartphone and analyze the results collectively and in real time, obtaining a photograph of the learning progress of the whole classroom and the necessary feedback to adapt the progress of the course to the needs of the students. In this way both the teacher and the students themselves can detect those aspects that need to be reinforced, focusing the activities developed in the classroom to that objective.

Data and results about each activity have been collected for analysis. Youtube Analytics has collected statistics on the visualization of the channel by the students, and has extracted data from the audience patterns and identified the strengths and weaknesses of the video tutorials to draw conclusions to improve its structure and edition design.

The results show that the student are considerably satisfied and committed to the methodology.
The academic results have reflected an averaged improvement of 30% in the pass rate compared to previous years.

Keywords:

STEM, collaborative, Guided Problem Solving, Monitoring.