Educators' SYMPOSIUM

Springfield Secondary School takes a proactive approach in integrating STEM education and environmental consciousness through our EcoSTEM Committee. This committee spearheads a whole-school framework that empowers students to apply STEM concepts in real-world sustainability contexts.

Our Applied Learning Programme (ALP) engages Secondary 1 and 2 students in hands-on, inquiry- driven learning. Secondary 1 students explore Health Sciences, while Secondary 2 students delve into Sustainable Farming, allowing them to connect classroom knowledge to authentic issues in personal health and food security.

Beyond curriculum, our Environment Ambassadors Leadership Programme nurtures student leaders who drive peer and community awareness on sustainability initiatives. These ambassadors spearhead eco-friendly projects, inspiring a culture of environmental responsibility.

Finally, a key enabler of our programme is the Eco Garden, a dynamic outdoor learning space utilized across multiple subjects. Teachers leverage this real-world setting to bring STEM concepts to life.

Join us in our sharing, to also experience first-hand some of the hands-on activities that we conduct with our students!

To achieve the school's teaching vision and cultivate students' four qualities: critical thinking, creativity, mobility, and practicality, a school-developed course has been designed.

During the course, students have an in-depth understanding of the earth's climate system and recognize the current important challenge for mankind. This will inspire students to be ambitious in facing challenges and promote human survival and well-being through various sustainable development solutions.

After motivating students, students can identify problems and propose cross-disciplinary, creative solutions. Use tasks in class to promote students' thinking.

We inspire young people excel in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths through a unique challenge: to design, build and race an electric car.

Mangrove ecosystems play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity, supporting numerous marine and terrestrial species. These unique coastal forests act as natural barriers, protecting shorelines from erosion, storm surges, and rising sea levels. They also serve as significant carbon sinks, mitigating climate change by storing large amounts of carbon.

However, mangroves face severe threats due to deforestation, coastal development, and pollution, leading to habitat loss and reduced ecosystem services. Conservation efforts, including sustainable management, afforestation, and community-based initiatives, are vital to preserving these ecosystems. Restoring degraded mangroves enhances their resilience to climate change, supports fisheries, and safeguards livelihoods. Scientific research and policy interventions are essential for long-term protection, ensuring that mangroves continue to provide ecological and socio-economic benefits. Strengthening conservation strategies will help maintain biodiversity, improve coastal resilience, and contribute to global climate stability. A continuous and in-depth study of mangrove ecosystems is essential to achieving this goal.

This presentation introduces the first-year STEM education framework implemented at Mahidol Wittayanusorn School, a specialized science school in Thailand. The framework comprises three core subjects designed to build essential competencies for all students as they begin their high school journey: Foundation of Workshop Skills, Foundation of Innovation, and Foundation of Research.

Together, these subjects aim to provide a balanced development of technical skills, creative problem-solving, and scientific inquiry. Foundation of Workshop Skills emphasizes hands-on experience with tools and materials, helping students understand the complexity and challenges of transforming ideas into tangible forms. Foundation of Innovation introduces key frameworks for ideation and creation, focusing on Design Thinking as a central methodology—particularly the process of empathizing, which is highlighted as a distinctively human approach to innovation. Foundation of Research lays the groundwork for scientific reasoning and methodology, fostering curiosity and critical thinking.

This session will reflect on the rationale behind this curricular design, its pedagogical underpinnings, and how these foundational experiences support students’ growth in subsequent STEM learning. The goal is to contribute to ongoing conversations on early-stage STEM education and share practices that may be adapted in other educational contexts.

An elective that offers a customized embedded systems curriculum prepares students for the fundamentals of engineering research design. This elective allows interested students with minimal to no experience in electronics and some experience in computer programming pursue passion projects that spark their interest, and paves the way for effective implementations of their capstone research projects in high school.

This research aims to assess the effectiveness of an intervention—integrating socio-scientific issues in chemistry learning—in promoting students’ decision-making skills. The research method employed was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group, measuring potential improvements in students’ decision-making skills as a result of their participation in the intervention. The instrument used in this research was a decision-making skills assessment, consisting of a five-item open-ended questionnaire. Data were collected from 60 eleventh-grade students, selected through random sampling. The data were analyzed using a paired t-test (univariate analysis). Prior to the paired t-test, prerequisite tests were conducted, including the Shapiro-Wilk normality test and Levene’s homogeneity test. The results indicate a significant difference in students’ decision-making skills before and after the intervention, demonstrating the effectiveness of integrating socio-scientific issues into chemistry learning.

Practical chemistry demonstrations enhance deep learning by making abstract concepts more tangible and engaging. They bridge the gap between theory and real-world applications, encouraging active participation and critical thinking.

Students learn by direct observation, which helps engagement, reinforces concepts and develops problem-solving skills. Furthermore, visual and sensory experiences in demonstrations aid retention, while fostering curiosity and inquiry. Guided group work promotes collaborative learning and deeper understanding.

Overall, practical demonstrations inspire greater motivation and a deeper connection to the subject, making chemistry more accessible and enjoyable.

One of the main priorities of KVIS is to ignite scientific thinking and curiosity in students. Starting from the first semester at KVIS, we implement a course on the nature of science, the scientific inquiry process, design thinking, and various skills and technologies essential for scientific research. This course, which we call ‘SINOS’ for short, takes place through lectures, demonstrations, inquiry- based exploration, presentations of experimental results, and project development. This approach aims to foster knowledge and understanding of science and research, enabling the appropriate use of technology to support scientific studies. It also prepares learners to apply their knowledge in daily life and future studies while developing essential skills and a positive attitude toward science, mathematics, and research.

ALOP (Active Learning in Optics and Photonics) is a program driven by UNESCO and SPIE (international society for optics and photonics). This program is purposed to give another way of inquiry-based learning for teacher to teach the Optics and Photonics material. In ALOP, all the learning activities will start with the problem and guide the learner to find out the answer through guided-handbook and simple yet easy hands-on activity.

The presenter will showcase an innovative inquiry-based learning program where students apply design thinking to create an inclusive play experience for children with varying visual capabilities. In collaboration with individuals with vision impairment, students were tasked with redesigning a playground that accommodates diverse sensory needs. This hands-on project allowed students to engage in real-world problem-solving while integrating STEM skills such as sensor technology, microcontroller programming, and 3D printing to develop functional prototypes. Through the process, students gained deeper insights into empathy, accessibility, and the power of collaborative design. The presenter will highlight how inquiry-based learning fosters critical thinking and creative problem-solving, encouraging students to apply their knowledge to improve the lives of others and design inclusive solutions for the future. This interdisciplinary approach demonstrates the transformative potential of STEM education in addressing real-world challenges.