Microclimate Studies in a STEM-Based Curriculum Using Open Source Hardware and Software

Abstract

Microclimate Studies in a STEM-Based Curriculum Using Open Source Hardware and Software

This project presents a design for schools in developing countries such as Indonesia. It encourages a networked mesh of open source environmental sensors to help teachers surface students’ evolving intuitions and conceptions about their local microclimate through a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-based curriculum. The objective is to afford teachers in resource-poor environments the means to design curriculum which would permit and encourage empirical investigation of environments familiar to learners, to increase task authenticity and context. Two cycles of Lesson Study were conducted, and results were analyzed in terms of teacher engagement and learner dispositions such as creativity. Teachers found the journey rewarding. The project continued through 2017 and into 2018.

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