Abstract:

Numerous academic institutions are focusing their interest in incorporating in the classrooms of all educational stages the interdisciplinary work of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) areas in order to enrich the teaching provided in the expository classes. Recent studies indicate that in order to ensure that students are able to apply STEM contents to real life, it is necessary to focus teaching strategies towards a more practical aspect, which improves the acquisition of competences and skills in students. In this line, the present research addresses the inclusion of practical projects for the interdisciplinary teaching of STEM areas in the primary classroom. The main objective has been to design and implement STEM projects to improve the learning of physics contents in students aged 10-12. The sample consisted of 144 students in the 5th and 6th grades of primary education. The research design was quasi-experimental, quantitative, with pre-tests and post-tests to analyze the cognitive and emotional evolution of the participating students. The pre-test was composed of 10 questions to evaluate the initial cognitive domain of the students referring to the STEM contents under study. The post-test included a section to evaluate the level of knowledge acquired after the execution of the STEM projects and a section to analyze the affective-attitudinal dimension of the students. The results obtained in the research indicate that the implementation of STEM projects as an active and motivating methodological strategy achieves a statistically significant improvement in student learning (Sig. < 0,001). Likewise, the inferential statistical analysis shows that there are no statistically significant differences (Sig. > 0.05) in the level of knowledge and learning of the students according to the gender variable. On the other hand, the results reveal a statistically significant cognitive improvement (Sig. < 0.05) in the level of knowledge reached by the students depending on the academic level variable, with better grades as they advance from one year to the next. With respect to the affective-attitudinal dimension, the results reveal that the use of STEM projects improves the image that students have towards scientific-technological areas. Specifically, the results show that the students showed more positive emotions than negative ones. Thus, for example, emotional variables such as fun and curiosity were exhibited more frequently during the didactic implementation of the projects. With respect to the most relevant results in the attitudinal questionnaire, it should be noted that 64% of the sample admitted that they would not have learned the contents had it not been for the STEM project carried out. Likewise, 86% of the sample considered that the experimentation carried out had facilitated the learning of the STEM contents to be studied. These results allow us to conclude that the inclusion of practical projects from the first school stages provides great academic and personal benefits for students of these ages. This type of didactic strategy contributes both to promoting effective and meaningful STEM learning and to improving students' attitudes and emotions towards these areas.

Keywords:

STEM, Primary Education, Learning, Emotions, Physics.