Teacher development in integrated STEM education: Design of lesson plans through the lens of computational thinking

Abstract

In recent years, the integration of STEM disciplines has been increasingly advocated. It is crucial to prepare and support teachers for integrated STEM education. However, few studies in the literature explore collaborating with teachers from different disciplines. This study investigates the effect of the professional development (PD) program designed for integrated STEM education on teachers' pedagogical design competencies and the contribution of the PD program to teachers' integrated STEM understanding. The pedagogical design competencies of the teachers were examined in terms of the level of conformity of the lesson plans they prepared based on the 5E learning model and how they unified the computational thinking components into STEM education. The program comprised 48 h and five modules. 20 computer science (CS), ten mathematics, and ten science teachers working in middle schools participated in the study. The study shows that the lesson plans developed collaboratively by the teachers were at an acceptable level in terms of integrated STEM education. However, lesson plans need to be improved. Regarding computational thinking, the teachers were more efficient in associating simulation in CS education, data analysis in mathematics education, and data collection in science education compared to other components. They were insufficient in associating components such as parallelization in CS education and automation in science and mathematics education. The teachers stated that PD program strengthens their collaboration with colleagues, contributes to pedagogical design skills in integrated STEM lesson planning and integrating STEM disciplines, and improves their understanding of integrated STEM.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 8

Table 8 Peer and expert assessment scores of lesson plans according to the 5E model

Appendix 2

Table 9

Table 9 Integrated STEM lesson plan

Appendix 3 Interdisciplinary Relationships of CT Components

Since this table is related to the lesson plan, it was deemed appropriate to present the problem statement, which is the starting point of the lesson plan and prepared as a group by the teachers, in the lesson plan with the 5E model.

Students are shown two different pictures, the first picture is an arid area, the second picture is a woodland picture as a green area. By asking the question, "What do you see in these two images?" students' opinions about two visuals are collected. "Which image would you like your place to be like, why?" The discussion is conducted in a way that emphasizes that all factors such as food, oxygen, water, etc. that will ensure the continuity of living life, and students are asked to explain the ideal ecosystem or environment, and the importance of forests. Then, they are asked to search the official pages of the state on how much forest land there is in our country and to list the tree species in the region. Afterward, they are asked where the forest areas are in their neighborhood. "What destroys our forests?" With the question, students are asked to write their answers to the board created with web 2.0 tools such as MindMeister, Mentimeter, Padlet (if there is access to appropriate technological tools), if there is no access, the teacher is asked to write the student's answers on the blackboard. It is decided which of the answers do the most damage. It is explained that the greatest damage to forests is caused by fires. It is requested to research how much forest area is damaged per year due to fire in Turkey. Students are made aware of the importance of fire detection by asking questions. “What can be done in case of a fire in the school? What are the measures in the school? Are the measures taken sufficient? What measures would you take?" By asking: "How do you plan to detect that the fire has started?" students are expected to conduct research in groups and collect information such as the combustion event, what kind of reaction has developed, the types and density of the gases emitted during this combustion event. Upon this, a combustion experiment is performed with the students and the data on combustion is collected. By asking: "What can we do to reduce the damage to our forests by the fire incident using the data we have obtained from the experiments?" The students are expected to answer that a system that will inform the fire department in a short time can be made with sensors measuring the gas density of the fire. Support questions may be asked until reaching this answer. Experiments are conducted with students to measure how far the sensors detect the gas density and measure the baseline values.

As an example, 5 groups of setups are prepared (Safety measures should be taken while preparing the experimental setups):

• In the 1st setup, there are sealed container and the container with the heat source

• In the 2nd setup, there is an open-mouthed container without any material inside

• In the 3rd setup, there is a sealed container with flammable material inside

• In the 4th setup, there is a container with an open mouth of flammable material

• In the 5th setup, there is a container with an open mouth and a heat source inside.

It is asked in which of these setups the combustion event is observed, in which one can the fire start and grow, they are asked to discuss the data they have obtained. Later, students are made to prepare simple fire mechanisms and test how they can detect the fire with different sensory organs, how long does it take to detect it, and they are asked to discuss among themselves whether a useful determination can be made on this issue. Finally, it is asked whether burning and fire incidents can be detected with the help of technology and how. An introduction to the subject of sensors and how to get data from some microcontrollers and processors are discussed, and they are asked to prepare an electronic mechanism to perform a fire detection process. In this context, it is stated that the prototype they made should detect the fire at the most appropriate distance and in the shortest time. The assemblies made are tried and tested. Using the information learned, students are requested to build a fire alarm system that detects the carbon monoxide concentration in the air with the help of sensors and sends a warning to the nearest fire department.

CT Component	CS Education	Mathematics Education	Science Education
Data collection	Information is collected about which sensors can be used Smoke Sensor SMS Module	According to data from the Ministry of Forestry, it was calculated how often data could be sent in which months. Calculated at what intervals to place sensors according to tree species	Smoke detection distances were measured for various trees
Data analysis	It was determined that if the carbon monoxide value taken from the smoke sensor is over 800 ppm, a fire situation occurred	It was determined that data should be sent every hour in summer and 3 h in other months	Area measurements covered by the smoke densities of tree species were extracted
Data representation	A table showing the measured CO values per month is prepared	A line graph showing the CO values by months is drawn	Loss of vitality below optimum humidity, a continuation of vitality on above
Problem decomposition	The program decides to send the alarm message according to the information received while measuring smoke	It calculates whether the amount of smoke goes above 800 ppm	The propagation rate of the fire is determined according to the type of tree in the forest area
Abstraction	The value taken from the smoke sensors will be measured continuously at specified intervals	VCO = CO concentration per unit volume If VCO >  = 800 send an Alarm SMS If VCO < 800 stand-by	The demonstration representing the fire incident was created and made with laboratory materials
Algorithms and procedures	1. start, 2. vco = sensor reading value 4. sensorno = 1 3. if vco >  = 800 go to step 5 4. If not, go to step 5 5. "There is fire" send via sensorno SMS module 6. Run the clock module 7. Return to top 8. Finish	The change in the amount of CO is determined by performing the necessary mathematical operations i.e. Proportion	The data obtained in the virtual simulation environment and also the data obtained through small station experiments conducted in a secure environment were collected
Automation	Proper coding is done in the Arduino editor	Graphs are created by computerizing data in the Excel program and interpreted	Tables are created by computerizing data in the Excel program and interpreted
Parallelization	- System that measures the amount of smoke continuously - SMS sending system integrated into the system	Number of trees that fit into the area detected by the sensor = [3.14 * (The distance that meets the amount of smoke emitted by the tree species)2] / tree footprint	Different fire scenarios were tried through controlled experiments
Simulation	The smoke sensor circuit in the tree was placed in the birdhouse. With the program written, the SMS module will start according to the information coming from the smoke sensor	The smoke spread area was measured according to different tree species	Different scenarios were arranged in the virtual science laboratory environment and the revisions of the system were determined

Appendix 4

Figure 1

Fig. 1

Images from Integrated STEM Lesson Plan and Learning Activity

There is a color sensor connected to the Arduino. There is litmus paper in the part seen by the color sensor. When acid rain falls, litmus paper turns red. Three DC motors available. There are two on the wheels and one where the tarpaulin unfolds. When the litmus paper turns red, the tarpaulin begins to open. The length of the tarpaulin is calculated according to the area of the field. The tarpaulin opens until the mechanism reaches the end of the field. There is also a button. When the acid rain is over, the tarpaulin can be collected by pressing the button.