Tracks

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in higher education are potential areas of research for early career faculty members.in higher education. The discipline has the potential to blend learning from other disciplines, particularly in the area of linguistics, performing art and social sciences. Students of STEM in higher education need to widen their focus to match up to the requirements of evolving industries. Science, Technology. Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) is a trending area of research in STEM education after inclusion of art. The effect of trans-disciplinary STEAM education program on student’s career choices and skill development is one of the emerging disciplines in academic research. This session is designed to bring in the multidimensional aspect of STEM education and how they impact overall student learning and career choices.

We are facing consequences of insensitive climate planning and mindless industrial development without giving much emphasis on the evolving climate risks and likely adverse impact on nations, continents bio-sphere and mother earth in general. The Sustainable Development Goals are set at a very ambitious level and it seems like we are going to miss either the deadline of 2030 or the goals set for this period. STEM education has a significant role to play in protecting the climate, using mindfulness and developing path shifting policies, programs and technologies for sustainable climate change. The session will deliberate on imminent climate risks and how sustainable policies on climate changes can save mother earth.

Science fiction is probably the closest fiction to the facts. Science fiction allows individuals to use the power of imagination propelled by scientific temper and increase the learning levels in an informal set up like television, films and shows. Inclusion of this track will help presentations on scientific findings and application to the science fiction with enthusiasts. This session is aimed at exploring the informal learning through science fiction.

Measuring the effectiveness and impact of any teaching learning process is an important driver of progression. The learner should move from one stage of learning to the next level; the rubrics and analytics should help in measuring the short term as well as long term impact of learning in STEM education. This session will answer questions on what is progressive learning and what metrics should be used for measuring progressive learning. Learning analytics inter-related with progressive education has the potential to alter the way learning happens in higher education space for STEM.

This session will focus on perception of teacher’s in higher education on technology integration, Ideating technology as a teaching learning process for STEM education is a hygiene factor. However, what matters is how teachers perceive technology enabled learning and at what rate they adopt to the new landscape. The role of prior skill and knowledge, access to available technology and teacher’s perception of additional value- add through technological intervention shall be deliberated in this session.

This session will introduce application of artificial Intelligence through computational thinking and interactive algorithms. The major objectives of this session is to learn how to use a training process, training data and confidence level in building AI based learning systems. The session will deliberate on decomposition, abstraction and pattern recognition for building AI models. The session shall cover issues in image recognition and help in identifying areas of potential bias.

Slow, Online, Ubiquitous Learning (SOUL) is an emerging area of research in STEM education since 2011. The SOUL pedagogy is widely used in the online education space. Researchers have started looking into its use, impact and effectiveness in teaching learning process in online education world. SOUL is an intervention into the conventional wisdom that portrays online education as a limitless exchange of ideas with temporal and spatial convenience. The session will focus on relevant dimensions like convenience, time, space and speed of learning as part of SOUL Framework.

The Systems Engineering Study Design rewards risk taking through its rubrics-assessed process of intention development, modeling, agile iteration of responses, testing, project management and comprehensive evaluation of responses, processes and performance. The session will deliberate on how a range of simple circuit and code fragments can plan the role of building blocks for STEM learner to design, conduct, analyze, critique and display meaningful research.

This session will explore the impact of virtual laboratories on the student learning process in medical and bio-medical courses. Currently majority of medical schools in developed nations are shifting to virtual labs for medical education, particularly on topics like anatomy and physic-functions of body. This session will explore the learner motivation on this shift due to adoption of visual and communication technology.

Augmented reality/ Virtual Reality popularly known as AR/VR enriches student’s learning experience. Integrating augmented reality tools with STEM curriculum leads to opening up of novel possibilities where students can be creative as well as technical. The AR/VR designs focus on diversity of thoughts, differences in world views and creative exploration by using media technology. The session will deliberate on use of AR technology and its impact on the learning process both inside the class room and virtual labs. This session will focus on use of AR/ VR technologies by creating, coding and curating digital scenes that can provide the desired STEM learning.

Computational thinking is a process of thinking involved in the formulation of problems and how to provide solutions. Programming is a way to cultivate computational thinking of a learner. Integration of Computational thinking with STEM education is a hot topic of research where visual programing software is augmenting learning levels. The visual programing helps in understanding the effect of virtual manipulative (VMs) in conceptual understanding and scientific enquiry. The session will explore the interaction between Physical Manipulative ( PM) and Virtual Manipulative and how virtual programming helps in long term knowledge retention. .

Computational thinking is a problem solving strategy that can be applied in multiple subject areas. This is very similar to design thinking process. This session will explore several ways for integrating computational thinking across several content areas. This session will illustrate how computational thinking can be applied in subjects like arts, science and mathematics by applying simpler, easier learning codes. The session will focus on five key domains of computational thinking viz. digital artifacts, computing, big data, technology and society and design.

Twenty first century industry demands the workforce to be more digital than mechanical. The web 2.0 demands that digital skills are provided in the STEM education. Coding, computational thinking, data science are important skills for the digital workforce. The session will present interesting research papers in the area of data science, big data analytics and their application in higher education space.