Exploring primary school students drawing solutions to problems in STEM activities

The Next Generation School Science framework explicitly notes that the engineering design process should be integrated with science activities (NRC, 2012). Yet, studies on the design of teaching practices have been limited. This study explored the effectiveness of combining the engineering design process with scientific inquiry activity on student problem-solving performance. A quasi-experimental two-group pretest-posttest design was conducted with an experimental group and a comparison group. Experimental group students (n = 16) participated in ten consecutive two-hour after-school lessons with four themes of integrated Scientific Inquiry and Engineering Design Process (i-SI&EDP) activities. Comparison group students (n = 19) attended other free-choice learning activities. Both groups were asked to respond to the engineering-based problem-solving test (EPST) at the beginning and end of the intervention. The analysis of covariance revealed that students in the experimental group scored significantly higher on the engineering-based problem-solving test, specifically in the 'idea creation and design sketching' indicator. Additionally, a qualitative analysis of students' problem-solving drawings suggested that structured and continuous after-school learning activities enhance visual thinking and the ability to conceptualize ideas while considering task constraints and appropriateness for production. As a STEM approach, the findings suggest that the i-SI&EDP shows potential for redesigning teaching and learning within the existing science curriculum to enhance students' problem-solving in engineering-based tasks.