Development And Evaluation Of STEM Courses In The Technical And Engineering Fields In Junior High School

With the development of the era and the progress of science and technology,the country's demand for innovative talents is gradually increasing.It is more and more important to cultivate students' innovative ability and operational ability through basic education.Among them,developing students' technical and engineering literacy as well as improving their engineering thinking ability through STEM courses have gradually become a national key strategy.In the White Paper on STEM Education in China,it is emphasized that STEM education is "an educational program for the new demands of talent cultivation in the transformation of China's economy and society,for China to establish itself as a world power and for realizing its dream of becoming a great country".Therefore,it is of great practical significance to explore the development and evaluation of STEM curriculum.Firstly,through in-depth analysis of the development process of STEM in the world,this study summarized the corresponding rules in this field and learned the concept of curriculum development.Secondly,the STEM curriculum suitable for Chinese junior high school students in the field of technology and engineering was designed according to the international research situation and China's specific national conditions.Subsequently,some students who participated in the course were investigated.In this study,167 junior high school students in Suzhou City,Jiangsu Province participated in the course were surveyed and tested by questionnaire.The data were processed and analyzed by SPSS to verify the scientific and feasibility of the questionnaire,in order to explore whether the curriculum developed by this research is suitable enough for junior high school students.The study results show that the questionnaires are with good reliability and validity which can reflect students' real attitude towards STEM curriculum.Though the test paper designed is slightly difficult(L=0.43),it is conducive to distinguish the level of students,and to evaluate the technical and engineering literacy of students.Finally,through the analysis of the data we collected,the conclusion can be drawn that the curriculum developed in this study is suitable for junior high school students,and the design of questionnaires well reflects students' attitudes.The results of this study provide valuable reference for developing STEM curriculum in China's junior middle school in the future.