Abstract:

Today's society requires more and more competent citizens in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) areas capable of solving the scientific-technological demands of our day-to-day life. However, as various international reports point out, there are fewer and fewer qualified people in these sectors. For this reason, the promotion of scientific and technological vocations from the earliest stages of schooling is a subject of great interest among educational professionals. Previous research indicates that students experience difficulties in dealing with activities and challenges associated with the areas of science and technology due to the manifestation of negative attitudes towards these subjects. However, the inclusion of STEM experiences in classrooms at all educational levels can improve young people's understanding of the various roles of these fields within society, as well as improve involvement, motivation and the search for solutions to real problems. The objective of the research has been to develop and validate a didactic intervention in 5th grade for the teaching of contents of forces and movement through STEM hands-on experiences. The design of the research has been experimental with pre-test and post-test. The sample consisted of 47 5th grade primary students belonging to two groups. Two evaluation instruments have been designed: A pre-test to know the cognitive, attitudinal and emotional variables of these subjects in the proposed topic, and a post-test to analyze the evolution of the subjects regarding the aforementioned variables. The analysis of the results obtained indicates that the study participants have certain prior misconceptions about the selected contents. The inferential statistical analysis reveals the existence of statistically significant differences (Sig. < 0.05) between the pre-test and the post-test in the whole participating sample. In other words, it is observed that after the didactic intervention based on STEM experiences, the students of both working groups improve their level of initial knowledge about the contents under study. Likewise, there is an increase in the positive emotions and a decrease in the negative emotions after the completion of the practical session. On the other hand, the inferential analysis carried out on the basis of the gender variable indicates that there are no statistically significant differences (Sig. > 0.05), thus differing from the existing stereotypes on this subject. The results shown reinforce our opinion of the need to include STEM workshops in the classroom from the early school stages, as they would be of great help in learning science in a meaningful way and improving students' emotions and attitudes towards these subjects.

Keywords:

STEM, Primary Education, Science Education, Cognitive Domain, Affective Domain.