A Study On Elementary Science Curriculum Development Based On STEM Concepts

The rise of domestic STEM education and the reform of elementary school science curriculum have promoted the integration of elementary school science and STEM education.STEM education emphasizes discipline integration and science and engineering practice to cultivate students’ problem-solving skills,inquiry skills,critical thinking,and innovative spirit.From the research point of view,there is no clear and unified definition of STEM education in the United States.Domestic first-line science teachers do not understand STEM courses in a certain degree or simply implement it into the science classroom with a notion of acquisition,and they cannot accurately grasp the STEM philosophy and integrate it into elementary school science classrooms.At the same time,STEM education puts forward higher requirements for teachers’ interdisciplinary knowledge and teaching methods.This study takes the STEM concepts as the guidance,and builds a theory system of elementary school science curriculum development based on the STEM concepts.First of all,this study adopts the method of literature research,and analyzes the literature related to STEM education and science education at home and abroad,summarizes the development of STEM education,its characteristics,and the integration with science education.On this basis,the background and significance of the development of elementary science curriculum are put forward,the problems are clarified,and the theoretical system of the concept,principle,goal,content,teaching strategy and evaluation of elementary school science curriculum based on the STEM concepts is combed and constructed.Secondly,this study adopts case analysis methods,through translation,analysis,and combing,we select three excellent STEM course cases in the US,namely,“our energy”,“wave and information transmission”,and “parachute design”,from the objectives,contents,teaching and evaluation strategies of curriculum development.Case studies are carried out to explain the elements of elementary science curriculum development based on STEM concepts.Based on this,the elementary school science curriculum cases based on the STEM concepts are designed.Finally,the concept of development of elementary science curriculum based on the STEM concepts complies with the prominent student status,based on real problems or scenarios,interdisciplinary or subject integration,scientific inquiry and engineering practice;establishing development goals from scientific knowledge,scientific inquiry and engineering practice,and scientific attitude and science,technology,society,and the environment;curriculum contents selection from material science,life sciences,earth and space science,technology and engineering science;selection of teaching strategies based on projects,problem-based,inquiry-based,and engineering-based;curriculum evaluation should pay attention to the diversification of the evaluation subject,emphasizing the formative evaluation of student learning,and pay attention to the development of student activity manuals and evaluation scales.