Problem-Based Design Thinking Tasks: Engaging Student Empathy in STEM

摘要

This study examines the interaction between students’ expressions of empathy and the use ofSTEM integration in the science classroom. Third space theory provides the context from whichthis classroom ethnographic qualitative study took place, as it provided an environment in whichdiscourse among students’ sociocultural perspectives, life experiences, and academic backgroundscould develop and interact. Nineteen seventh-grade students from a Title 1 school, a school thatreceives federal aid to better support students coming from low-income families, in the SoutheastUnited States participated in this study. Participants generated their own real-world problem-baseddesign-thinking (PBDT) tasks to address and solve. Students exhibited significant characteristicsof empathy and integration of various STEM content and practices evidenced by in-classdiscussions, field-notes observations, student artifacts, and individual student interviews as part ofthe STEM Third Space Genius Hour sessions. The PBDT Framework, inspired by the BiologicalSciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) learning cycle and design thinking (DT), provides theconceptual lens through which to view the connectedness among students’ PBDT tasks, STEM,and empathy.