This study examined the effect of design-based science instruction (DBSI) on sixth grade students' science achievement, as well as their development in relation to science process skills. 213 sixth grade students from three public schools participated in the study. A pilot was conducted in the unit of Systems of the Human Body and the main study…

Design thinking has been propositioned to be interconnected to Dewey's notion of pragmatist inquiry and aesthetic experience. To address the need for empirical studies on design thinking in the classroom and add to our understanding of its characteristics, this study explored middle years' students' discourse as they worked through a design…

Design activities are gaining interest as rich contexts for learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. STEM teachers may find this challenging however, as designing requires support that they are not used to providing. In a subject like chemistry, teachers would have to balance creativity and responsibility for the…

The study investigated the effect of using a design thinking teaching method on male and female students' achievement in some selected secondary school physics concepts in the context of STEM learning. The study was carried out in an afterschool environment which necessitated the researcher using a single group quasi experimental research design…

Building a robot from scratch in an educational context can be a challenging prospect. While a multitude of projects exist that simplify the electronics and software aspects of a robot, the same cannot be said for construction systems for robotics. In this paper, we present our efforts to create a low-cost do-it-yourself construction system for…

This paper presents a mixed methods study in which 77 students and 3 teachers took part, that investigated the practice of Learning by Design (LBD). The study is part of a series of studies, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, that aims to improve student learning, teaching skills and teacher training. LBD uses the…

This paper is a review of the literature related to teaching science through designing technology. The premise of this method is that designing technology presents the students with the context through which they can apply the science concepts they learned and thus enhancing their understanding of these concepts. Despite the promise of this…

Throughout history various grand narratives have impacted on technology education. In the current post modern era of globalization, technology education continues to struggle for relevance and definition, and takes various forms in different countries, but none seem resoundingly successful. The current development of what some have termed a…

Relatively low participation in the hard sciences (mathematics, science, engineering and technology) has become a concern with respect to the capacity of Australia to meet critical infrastructure projects. This problem has its roots in poor student attitudes towards and perceptions about the study of prerequisite subjects including mathematics and…

Future elementary school teachers often lack self-efficacy for teaching science and technology. They are particularly anxious about encouraging children to carry-out student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry and/or technological design projects. Moreover, because this often also is the case with practising elementary school teachers, it is…

The paper explores the role of values in design decision-making through the eyes of key authors and a pilot study. "Knowing that" and "knowing how" in designing are reviewed and the problematic distinctions between "know how"; and skill noted. The effect of values on design decision-making is discussed and examples from the pilot study are…

It has been argued that design and technology can be used as a vehicle for teaching science and vice versa. In this paper, we report an investigation into Grade 6 students' understandings of concepts embodied in the Systems strand of a technology syllabus as they grappled with a unit of work in technology for the first time. The unit of work…