Study On The Influence Of Woodworking Workshop Activities Based On STEM Concept On The Development Of Spatital Ability Of Children Aged 5-6

With the advent of more child-friendly measurement methods,the idea that humans develop spatial abilities from infancy has been confirmed by more and more studies.From birth,children feel shapes and spatial orientations in the process of exploring their surroundings,and many of their early activities contribute to the development of their spatial abilities.Woodworking workshop activities involve skills such as drawing,measurement and the use of tools,which play a very important role in the development of children’s spatial ability,fine movements and other skills.On the other hand,under the support of the elements such as integration,engineering thinking,problem orientation and autonomy emphasized in the concept of STEM,it seems that the development of children’s spatial ability can play a more prominent role.Traditional woodworking activities pay more attention to the use of tools and production skills,with the completion of crop production as the ultimate goal,and children’s behavior is more the implementation of the will of teachers.In the woodworking workshop activities based on the concept of STEM,engineering thinking is taken as the main line,along the cognitive structure,design structure,modeling structure,production structure and adjustment structure,the cross-integration of science,technology,and mathematics disciplines,fully respecting children’s autonomy.In woodworking activities,children explore the graphic structure,rotation,construction and other aspects,and get more opportunities for the development of spatial ability.For these reasons,an experimental and observational approach was used to analyze,from a combination of quantitative and qualitative research,whether woodworking workshop activities based on the STEM concept can positively affect5-6 children’s internal-static,internal-dynamic,external-static,and external-dynamic abilities.and external-dynamic abilities,and through which aspects.At the same time,since gender has always been an important factor affecting individual spatial ability,the discussion of gender has been added.Further verify the previous achievements and provide supplements for the research of space capability.In the experiment,two parallel classes were selected as the experimental group(22 children)and the control group(22 children),using the spatial ability testing tools,The Graphic Mosaic Task,The Block Task,The Spatial Scale Task,and The Perspective Selection task,before conducting the intervention sessions to measure their internal-static,internal-dynamic,external-static,and external-dynamic dimensions of spatial ability were pre-tested before the intervention sessions.Children in the experimental group then received a total of 45 sessions of woodworking workshop activities over a 13-week period,while children in the control group participated in the same broad themes as children in the experimental group but did not participate in the woodworking workshop activities.After the intervention sessions,post-tests of spatial ability were administered to each of the two groups of children using the same spatial ability testing task as the pre-test.The results showed that after the intervention,compared with the control group,the spatial ability of the experimental group was significantly improved in the three dimensions of internal-static,internal-dynamic and external-static.After the activity intervention,the children in the experimental group improved their graphic recognition ability by 62%in the internal-static dimension compared to the previous one.In the "internal-dynamic" dimension,the ability to transform shapes increased by 22%compared to the previous one.In external-static ability,children’s ability to perceive the relative position of objects increased by 28% compared to before.In addition,in woodworking workshop activities based on STEM concepts,gender factors only have a significant impact on the external-dynamic dimension,and there is no statistically significant difference in the impact on the remaining three dimensions.Through the text transcription and coding analysis of the observed activity video materials,this paper further explores what opportunities the woodworking workshop activities based on the STEM concept provide for the development of children’s spatial ability.The results show that activities provide mainly opportunities for the development of children’s internal-static ability,such as recalling shapes by observing objects,models or pictures.And the teacher’s explanation develops the ability to recognize and perceive graphics.Develop the ability to express shapes through drawing,modeling,and hands-on operations.The main opportunities for the development of children’s internal-dynamic capabilities are the ability to develop two-dimensional and three-dimensional transformation through design drawing and modeling and production.Develop the ability of graphic transformation through hands-on operation,construction process,imagining graphics,and teachers providing production skills.The main opportunities for the development of children’s external-static ability are to develop the ability to understand the relative position of objects through observation and operation and explanation by teachers.The main opportunities for the development of children’s external-dynamic capabilities are to observe objects from different perspectives and to develop the ability to understand the relationship between multiple views of objects.The study makes the following educational recommendations: use more interactive hands controlled by children,enhance the use of spatial vocabulary,provide more opportunities for children to observe multiple views of objects,control the volume of woodworking pieces,and strengthen the connection between design drawings and pieces.