Tan, Timothy Ter Ming

Purpose. The development of scientific literacy in the learner may be the ultimate goal of science education, but achieving this objective remains an ongoing endeavor with many issues to overcome. There is also a paucity of the appropriate teaching tools and pedagogies to fully realize that goal. This study sought to foster the development of scientific literacy at the secondary school level thorough the use of integrated science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) laboratory activities that feature a design-based inquiry (DBI) approach.

Design and Methodology. A curriculum package was developed around activities that blend inquiry science learning with an engineering design challenge involving the microbial fuel cell (MFC). The novel curriculum program was co-developed with and conducted by experienced science teachers from a government-aided secondary school in Singapore, and implemented as a 10-week program with two groups of Secondary Two (Grade 8) students (n = 77) after several smaller pilot implementations at other schools. This MFC program implementation was studied using a case study methodology from review of video recordings of lessons and of students’ written work in order to examine the program’s effectiveness as an approach to the cross- disciplinary teaching of science, and the development of desired aspects of scientific literacy. Given the protracted difficulties experienced in securing a study site for this project, a retroactive case-study and reflective analysis of the challenges involved in implementing an unconventional and complex curriculum program such as this was also conducted. This was based on an analysis of the attributes and circumstances present at the time in eight of the schools involved that may have contributed to the success or failure of program implementation. The purpose of which was to surface the factors that generally support and enable this type of program implementation for future reference.

Findings. The program was well-received with strongly positive feedback from students. Minds-on student learning in the conceptual, epistemic, and social domains of scientific literacy were observed. In particular, students applied evidence- based reasoning, various epistemic skills and a variety of problem-solving approaches to the learning tasks. Nearly all student groups were capable of constructing functional improvised MFCs, with most of those outperforming the voltage of the reference kit-based MFC. Key factors that enabled successful implementation of the program were also uncovered.

Value and Implications. This project represents the first successful implementation of a DBI-driven, STEM-integrated MFC curriculum program with middle-school level students. It can serve as a model and encouragement for the development of other curriculum packages that feature some or all of those elements.

Inquiry science has always been a focus of our research as science educators although over the years, we have slowly expanded our initial understanding of “inquiry as means” towards better appreciating “inquiry as ends.” Our confidence in and respect of this more comprehensive view manifested itself in my [LYJ] teaching when I mounted an undergraduate course based on Ready, Set, SCIENCE! (RSS) (Michaels, Shouse, & Schweingruber, 2008). Summarizing an earlier reference called Taking Science to School (TSTS), these two books spoke about the erroneous fixation on content mastery in much of science education though this is still a favoured priority everywhere. While some degree of memorization of science facts and concepts is inevitable, science as a robust way of knowing the natural world is badly compromised if learning is left as these levels. As well, simply having more hands-on laboratory activities or practical work in the hope of mimicking the work of scientists does not serve the aims of inculcating student interest or higher -order thinking in science: Students might be able to manage procedural scientific knowledge, manipulate physical objects during practical work or be able to control some variables but utterly disappoint with respect to creating, revising or applying abstract scientific ideas, models, or theories.
In all likelihood, any form of inquiry pedagogy can achieve most of the desired endpoints in science education (i.e. the cognitive, epistemic & social) in the hands of a skilful teacher although Design-based Inquiry (DBI) appears most apposite given our adoption of the Microbial fuel Cell (MFC) engineering model. Basically, DBI involves the iterative and problem-solving journey of researching, designing, building, and improvement of objects that pulls along knowledge and application of science—constructing a "successful” artifact is the overarching goal of that activity with just-in-time learning of science as both its condition and byproduct. Its benefits are none other than the entire gamut of doing and learning science authentically and it should come as no surprise to hear that engineering/technological design shares a positive inter-dependence with the development of scientific literacy. Engineering design is the analog of scientific inquiry but whether it be in science or design, success and deep learning is often found, paradoxically, through productive failure—in both disciplines “knowing what is wrong matters as much as knowing what is right”.
The MFC, our vehicle for student inquiry, has been used since 2005 in NIE to teach principles of biochemistry among in-service teachers. In essence, the MFC is a class of fuelcells that employ various microbes and membranes to generate electricity and it shows potential in areas such as the self-powered treatment of wastewater. The biochemical workings of the MFC are not completely known to science thereby offering opportunities to learn science content, process skills, Nature of Science, and other important skills. With this setup that is unfamiliar to most teachers and students, a wide range of scientific variables can be tested to increase the current that can be obtained—the main goal of the inquiry design challenge for students.