Congratulations to Roxanne Lau on winning the Global Undergraduate Awards!
Congratulations to Roxanne Lau Shu Xin, Year 4 Bachelor of Science (Education) student teacher from the Natural Science and Science Education Academic Group on winning the Global Undergraduate Awards. Roxanne shared about the research done for her winning entry.
Winning Entry
In the 21st century where skills application and knowledge integration are prized, there is strong advocacy to include Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in many education models. The goal of the study was to examine teacher’s instructional practice and students’ experiences in terms of the questions asked as they engaged in a problem-centric STEM activity.
Roxanne and members of A/P Tan Aik Ling's research team designed a science and engineering-focused activity on the theme of photosynthesis and agricultural engineering. The first of the three-lesson series was conducted by a science teacher, who went through a professional development course on STEM teaching, for a class of 19 secondary-two express students. The lesson was video recorded and transcribed. Likewise, during group-problem solving, a randomly chosen group of students was video recorded and their discussion was transcribed for analysis.
From the transcript of the lesson, both questions made by the teacher and student were categorised and tabulated. Findings show that Socratic questioning was most frequently used by the teacher in the problematising phase to guide students in understanding the problem at hand. Productive questioning and making real-world connections allowed the class to effectively comprehend the problem. During group-problem solving and the design process, students raised mainly clarification and task-procedural questions. By looking at students’ thought processes, we found evidence of science inquiry and informed design patterns.
About the Global Undergraduate Awards
The Global Undergraduate Awards (UA) is the world's leading academic awards programme which recognises top undergraduate work, shares this work with a global audience and connects students across cultures and disciplines. Out of over 2,500 submissions, the top 1% of students are selected as the highest performing entrants in their category for the 2021 programme. The Global Undergraduate Summit, which will be held from 15–17 November 2021, allow winners will have the opportunity to present their work in front of fellow students and academics from all over the world!
The list with the other category winners can be found here.
