Think Locally, Act Globally: Encouraging Secondary School Students to Adopt A STEAM Mindset through Extra-curricular Competitions

Overview

STEAM Education has been one of the major foci of the 21st century education. It is challenging to implement and include STEAM education in existing secondary school curriculum with overloading content yet very limited time. As such, secondary schools may need explore means of extra-curricular activities, e.g. through participating in competitions.
The presentation explores on including an extra STEAM thinking framework with secondary school students on top of the given guidelines by competition organisers, in order to help facilitate students’ adoption of a STEAM mindset in their learning and their personal life. The mindset may include design thinking that secondary school students should always be encouraged to make observations and to try to solve problems in their everyday scenarios.

Three groups of secondary school students will be sharing their experiences in joining Biology-related competitions while putting an emphasis on a STEAM mindset throughout their journeys of preparations.