Offering Multiple Entry-Points into STEM for Young People
Enrollment in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) is not keeping pace with the need. Recent reports indicate a decrease in the number of graduates from STEM fields and a shortage on the job market. Considering these issues, particu
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Abstract Enrollment in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) is not keeping pace with the need. Recent reports indicate a decrease in the number of graduates from STEM fields and a shortage on the job market. Considering these issues, particular attention has been paid developing innovative methods and tools for improved teaching of STEM themes. This work presents an approach involving multiple entry points for young people to engage in the STEM fields. This approach is manifested in the non-profit association Practical Robotics Institute Austria (PRIA) with its activities designed to fill STEM gaps in the Austrian education system and to bring innovative engagement that cannot be found in the classrooms. Thus, STEM literacy is fostered as well as the development of systems thinking, problem solving, and teamwork skills. Keywords STEM ⋅ After-school program ⋅ Camps ⋅ Workshops ⋅ Non-profit association ⋅ Research ⋅ Education
1 Introduction Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is a recently emerged paradigm that focuses mostly on science and mathematics disciplines, but also includes technology and engineering [1]. STEM education has evolved into a meta-discipline and thus an integrated effort that removes the traditional barriers between these subjects. Instead it focuses on innovation and the applied process of designing solutions for complex contextual problems using current tools and techW. Lepuschitz ⋅ G. Koppensteiner ⋅ M. Merdan (✉) Practical Robotics Institute Austria, Wexstrasse 19-23, A-1200, Vienna, Austria e-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.pria.at W. Lepuschitz e-mail: [email protected] G. Koppensteiner e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 M. Merdan et al. (eds.), Robotics in Education, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 457, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42975-5_4
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nologies [2]. It shall help individuals in developing different strategies in order to solve interdisciplinary problems and gain skills and knowledge as they are engaged with STEM related activities through formal and informal learning programs [3, 4]. Currently, there is a shortage of student interest in STEM, and a lack of a welltrained teaching force in those areas [5]. Austria, like many other industrialized countries, suffers under the known phenomenon that the affinity of the youth to STEM professions decreases with the degree of achieved wealth in the country [6]. Almost 52 % of Austrians rate it “as unimportant for a personal daily routine to know something about science and research”, and Austria therefore represents a front-runner in a negative sense out of 32 European states [7]. Already today in Austria, eight out of ten industrial companies have problems to find qualified personnel in the fields of engineering, production, research and development [8]. In a direct European comparison regarding the youth interest in a STEM career Austria holds one of the last places, although two thirds of university graduates,
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