Abstract:

Capstone projects are a vital component for the provision of high quality Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education in modern academic institutions. Many studies emphasize the importance of capstone projects for the delivery of high quality knowledge and the development of critical skills to students. Mentoring in the context of capstone projects challenges the integration of Knowledge, Community Development, and Problem Solving capabilities. In this study we present a didactical/teaching best practices guide by interpreting a number of requirements in capstone projects in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Curricula. The contribution of our work is a spiral methodology for the effective provision of Mentoring in typical capstone projects. Furthermore, the interpretation of modern available ICTs guides a recommended technological enabled toolkit with services available to students in capstone projects. The key conclusion is that an integrated Knowledge management approach can justify the utilization of several ICTs in order to facilitate novel approaches in Teaching and Mentoring for advanced problem solving capabilities.

Keywords:

STEM, Capstones, ICT's, Mentoring, Empowerment, Active Learning, Teaching Methodologies, Spiral KM methodology.