Motivation in STEM Learning

Two ideas were thrown up during the brainstorming session last week to motivate students towards inter-disciplinary STEM learning.

The first was citizen science (or amateur science or crowd-sourced science).  The term implies involvement of the public in inquiry and a shared discovery of new knowledge. A project like this can involve one person or millions of people working in collaboration towards a common goal. Typically, public involvement includes collection of data, analysis, or fact-reporting.

Very diverse fields like geophysics, chemistry ecology, astronomy, medicine, computer science, statistics, psychology, genetics, engineering and others have become part of what citizens study recently. The massive collaborations that can occur through citizen science allow investigations at continental and global scales and across decades—leading to discovery that a single scientist could never achieve on their own.

Examples of ongoing and cool citizen science projects include:

Nanocrafter

When you play this game, you’ll create nanomachines using real DNA sequences and make inroads into the field of synthetic biology

NASA’s SMAP Satellite Mission

The SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) is a NASA satellite that orbits the earth measuring soil moisture levels. Citizen scientists can collect soil samples from their area to compare to data provided by the satellite

Play to Cure: Genes in Space

Cancer Research UK created this incredible space adventure game that allowed users to analyze genetic data and help develop treatments for cancer while having fun at the same time! The project has now ended, but the results are sure to have long-lasting benefits

(Source: Discover Magazine)

There is a national Citizen Science Association conference; The White House’s Open Science and Innovative Forum and a Federal Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Toolkit.

The idea is powerful and grasps people’s imagination because it bridges gaps by harnessing the power of the masses, who are motivated by curiosity, reuniting science with leisure participation in the process.

The second was family science nights that brings together families for a special evening science event in which kids get a chance to share their learning and show it off to their parents and even discover new things with their siblings and parents. An evening like this consists of hands-on science stations with simple instructions set up in tables in a common area. Older students and teachers cover stations, depending on the activity and help families run the experiments.