Abstract:

In recent years there has been a decline in scientific vocations at European level, which may influence the future development of scientific-technological aspects of our society. For this reason, it is becoming increasingly necessary to begin to build scientific vocations from an early age, and to strengthen both scientific and technological literacy in primary school students. However, a growing number of studies reveal that not only must science literacy acquisition be fostered in isolation, but the concepts and contents of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) need to be integrated to understand and solve the problems of present-day society by linking these four disciplines. From the area of didactics of experimental sciences, we consider it an obligation of our society to properly train future teachers so that they will be able to deal with the different STEM contents with their future students. Consequently, the general objective of this work was to design and develop STEM workshops applicable to primary school classrooms (from 6 to 12 years of age) that allow a better understanding of the concepts of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The sample was composed of primary education teachers in training. These students were divided into subgroups of three to five components. Each subgroup developed a STEM workshop with different themes to show the children that with this type of activities they can learn by playing, experimenting and building, and that it is possible to teach and learn basic scientific, technological and mathematical concepts with experiences that are fun and entertaining. The analysis of the data obtained from different measuring instruments reveals an improvement in the professional development of teachers in training, both at cognitive and emotional level, improving not only the acquisition of STEM competences, but also their didactics.

Keywords:

Science Education, STEM Workshops, Primary Education.