It is no secret that COVID-19 has affected almost every part of the world. Everyday life has become harder than usual. Most of the time, people have been forced to isolate themselves from society. The basic connection between two people has since become a luxury. Many people have missed out on essential parts of their lives because of the global pandemic. You might be thinking, is there a connection between a worldwide pandemic and STEM education? Yes, there is a connection.

As you know, many industries were affected by the pandemic and are still being affected. People's working situation has changed, and almost everyone has started to work from home. The same can be said of the education industry. It is safe to say that the education industry may have been affected the most. Students started to attend classes from their homes, and teachers quickly adapted to that situation and taught classes online. The education system is undergoing some profound changes, and STEM is no exception. In the upcoming sections, we will take a closer look at STEM education and the current trends within.

STEM Education: What Is It?

STEM education stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education. It is different from traditional education. The main difference between conventional and STEM education is that subjects are concentrated on separately by the students in traditional education. In contrast, STEM education integrates the latest technology with the curriculum subjects and makes them relatable in a disciplined manner.

STEM education emphasizes developing practical skills that help to build a better future instead of focusing only on test performance. That does not mean that test performance is bad, it is necessary to gauge how students are developing their skills, but it is not required to be the sole way to measure a student's performance. STEM focuses on communication, logical thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and research skills that help students succeed in today's world irrespective of the field.

Trends in STEM Education:

Did you know? According to the U.S Bureau of Labor technology and science, information technology occupations are projected to grow by 13 percent from 2020 to 2030, which is faster than many other occupations. Students who do not have an interest in technological background studies and occupations can also benefit from STEM learning. It helps students to gain another perspective on solving complex problems.

The two main reasons STEM is in the spotlight are, for one, that it encourages team collaborations. Most STEM projects and research will require a capable team to solve problems. The second is hands-on projects. Real-time projects help students gain considerable skills, such as critical and logical thinking. It becomes a place where students can implement concepts learned in the classroom into an actual working project to understand more about the problem.

Yes, STEM improved a lot in the last decade. But, how will it grow in the future? The following are the top 5 trends in STEM education

1. eLearning:

Yes, eLearning will be a massive thing in the coming future. Even after the global pandemic, some schools still offer online classes. Many instructors and STEM teachers have started integrating videos into their lessons because of the hybrid teaching methods they’ve had to adopt during the pandemic. This, in turn, creates a demand for more educational videos. There are two reasons for this demand: One is that students can learn at their own pace, meaning they can start, stop, and pause the video in their own time. Second, it is more interactive than traditional classroom sessions. It is safe to say that students can expect more eLearning in STEM in the future.

2. Inclusion of AI in the Classroom:

The main aim of this trend is to free up the time of teachers and tutors so that they can focus on educating students about STEM. Including AI (artificial intelligence) in the classroom can help tutors grade students' test performances efficiently and have the time to focus on other work. With an AI-based system, teachers can gauge students' weaknesses and strengths, and based on that, teachers can develop a strategy to tailor their approach to teaching STEM students.

3. Robotics Competition:

Compared to the last decade, the growth of the robotics competition is substantial thanks to STEM education. With the help of block coding, students across the country, sometimes even the world, compete with each other for the grand prize, which is usually a scholarship. Participating in events like robotics competitions is an excellent opportunity for students to collaborate with other students and learn more about STEM and other aspects of education.

4. Integrating Games in STEM Education:

Games are always fun and kids love nothing more than having fun. What can be a better way to make STEM learning more interesting and fun? Integrating games in STEM education. For example, the implementation of competitions with a leaderboard will motivate students to learn and explore more. Their thought process will be focused on achieving the first prize in the competition. 

Ultimately, gamification helps in development and positive collaboration between kids. Implementing games in the teaching approach makes kids rely on and widen their knowledge, gain the ability to focus on a given task, and, ultimately, gain responsibility for the decisions they make. 

5. Influence of Social Media

It is no secret that social media is one of the biggest trends in the world. Integrating social media with STEM education is one of the best approaches for students. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can be a vast medium to learn and share about STEM education. With social media, you can conduct group lectures, upload live teachings, discuss complex topics in a thread, and connect with other students.

6. Starting Early:

This might be the most significant trend in STEM education, from its introduction to this day. The main objective is to expose the children from an early age to STEM learning. The reason is children can learn any concept quickly at a young age. Technology, such as block coding, is a great example. Block coding is the best gateway for children to learn about traditional text-based coding. Block coding is an approach to learning a programming language; instead of traditionally learning the code, text-based coding, students learn block coding through visual representation. This makes the whole learning experience more compelling and easy.

How Do Botzeestoys Prepare Kids for STEM Learning?

Botzeestoys is one of the leading experts in STEM learning, offering educational and, at the same time, fun products that help children's education. The objective of Botzeestoys is to enable kids to create, program, and play. What that means is that Botzeestoys provide the highest quality toys (robots) that integrate cutting-edge technology with STEM learning to make the best-in-class educational and fun toys. Botzeestoys help children learn critical thinking and logical thinking skills while encouraging them to collaborate with other students to solve complex problems, all at a young age.

Botzeestoys, as mentioned above, prepare kids for STEM learning in three steps: create, program, and play. In the create step, children assemble the toy, i.e. a robot made up of 120 rounded edge building blocks and sensors. Once the assembly is done, the next step is programming the assembled robot. Here, children use block coding technology to program the robot to perform specific actions. Block coding can be accessed using the application provided by Botzeestoys. The final step is to check whether the assembled robot performs the required action. With this, Botzeestoys hopes that through these the children can develop various abilities, such as concentration, logical thinking, cognitive skills, hands-on experience, and creation.

FAQs:

The curriculum changes, assessment difficulties, lack of faculties who specialize in STEM education, structural challenges in academic institutions, and difficulties involved in online learning are some of the challenges teachers face in STEM education.

Pedagogy means learning through experience. The main objective of STEM learning is to let students have hands-on experience in solving complex problems by implementing the concepts learned from the classroom.

It helps students gain skills, such as team collaboration, logical and critical thinking, problem-solving, encouragement of technology usage, experimentation, knowledge in application use, and adapting to situations.

Conclusion:

In this article, we have seen STEM education and the current trends in STEM learning. STEAM education is also known as STEM education, but the main difference is the inclusion of Art. Technology is the future, and STEM can be a vital part of that future. From small robots to intelligent AI, STEM professionals play a significant role. STEM can act as the foundation for student success and pave the way for them to widen their horizons. Botzeestoys help students at a young age by exposing them to STEM learning, developing their STEM skills, and making them great professionals who can solve complex problems in the future.