Introduction
With the advancement of technology, the world is evolving continuously. This plays an important role as this affects the system of operations in almost every sector. One of the changes is in education. Education has evolved completely and now the most important factor is that there is no place for traditional classrooms or traditional methods of learning. There is a need for more efficient methods that would help the child to focus and develop an interest in learning by themselves. STEM education is a major part of this transformation and this plays a significant role in impacting the child’s overall growth. STEM emphasizes the use of logical reasoning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills through modern curriculum. These skills would help the children to learn along with the integration between Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics that would help them to develop the abilities to analyze, evaluate, and solve complex problems.
Understanding STEM
STEM education ensures that the students are equipped with everything they need as it aims at providing resources and knowledge to the children as it strongly believes that the children are the future leaders of our country. According to a theory given by David Kolbfurther, emphasis is being put on the importance of hands-on, experiential learning so that knowledge can be understood, inculcated, and applied in a meaningful way for ensuring smooth progress. It is particularly stated that the process of learning is even more effective when it incorporates but also associates a feeling with what is being learned. This is done especially by engaging children in activities and enabling them to actively make use of multiple human senses. This ensures the smooth development of a child. These in a compiled form lead to another important concept called – ‘Discovery Led Education’, which is also commonly known as ‘Inquiry Based Learning’.
What is Discovery Led Education?
When students are learning in discovery-led classrooms, they can easily engage in hands-on, project-based activities that allow them to practically make use of the resources and actively explore and discover newer concepts and ideas. This is extremely contradictory to the traditional approach of teaching in which students are forced to be passive recipients of the information by carrying out the textbook lessons that are generally taught on a board. With these new teaching methods like Discovery Led Education, which are backed by impressive AI and VR, students get encouraged to play an active role in their learning by asking questions, testing hypotheses, and making connections with what else they have learned. Teachers, in this kind of teaching environment, act as facilitators to extend resources and support, but it is the role of the students to ultimately mark their learning curve. It is also believed that Discovery Led Education closely mirrors real-life problem-solving and decision-making process that enables the children to make use of the mechanisms from different parts of the brains that help in their core development, and this is more relevant for the students to relate to, which in turn increases their interest and engagement in the particular subject.
Benefits of STEM Education
STEM education and its multiple branches ensure that the students are equal contributors to classroom learning and inculcate crucial life lessons through this process of learning.
● STEM ENCOURAGES DIVERSITY, CREATIVITY, AND INNOVATION IN THE CHILD
STEM education can promote diversity by providing children with a wide range of role models and opportunities that would help them to learn about different cultures, perspectives, and people. This also encourages the children to think creatively and to develop innovative solutions to problems. This can enable children to become even more efficient and knowledgeable.
● BUILDING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY AND INDEPENDENT NATURE WITHIN THE CHILDREN:
STEM and its interdisciplinary approach help the students to understand the complexities of the real world and how different fields are interconnected. They understand the vague border between two interdisciplinary areas within the same subject. Whether it is with languages, history, science, or even art. This type of education system helps to encourage the students to draw correlations and frame independent opinions and innovations about the areas under study.
● MAKES THE STUDENTS READY FOR THE FUTURE
STEM education focuses on the future of the children and this helps to prepare the students for careers in the future world. With the world becoming more technology-driven, a stronger foundation in STEM will increase the possibility of their success in the job market.
Conclusion
STEM education helps in developing the key skills within children that are helpful in today’s world. It focuses on the disciplinary as well as the interdisciplinary areas that would help the child to thrive in the competition of the present-day market.
