The Importance of Laboratory Facilities in an Integrated Stem Education - Case Study Example

Integrated Stem education al Affiliation Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is a relatively new program that serves an important role in molding the future of the upcoming learners and the society. It is mainly project oriented and aimed at making the learning process more relevant to students. The need to do experiments during the practical classes therefore requires various laboratory facilities. The skills acquired in the program equip the students as they join colleges. Through integrated STEM education the students get focused to authentic problems and also learn the process of solving the problems while retaining the learnt skills and knowledge. The implementation of this relatively new field in education calls requires various types of laboratory facilities that are discussed at large in this paper. Keywords: Education, Quality, Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics Innovation. Introduction A laboratory is a special room with set conditions and instrumentations necessary for any given experiments. When designing a laboratory there are certain guidelines that should be taken into consideration regardless to the type of laboratory in question. The disabled students’ requirements should also be considered. In so far as learning science is concerned, each laboratory should be equipped separately depending on the subject of the experiments being handled. If the laboratory is physics related then it should have appropriate set up and standards and so should be that handling chemistry, engineering and biology related experiments. The Initiative According to the American Society of Civil Engineers each laboratory has its own essence in STEM education and the roles need to be played to make the initiative a success. However, the main aim of the laboratory is to make the students acquire skills and practice what is taught in theory. Additionally, the laboratories are also places where the students’ creativity can be realized and incubated. The importance of various laboratory facilities in an integrated STEM education is discussed at large in the essay. There are various laboratory facilities required for STEM education. Research work is conducted in active materials and mechanics laboratory which bridges between experimental mechanics and material science (Crippen & Archambault, 2012). This facility equips the student with the original methods of carrying out tests besides the theoretical and computational modeling. Algorithmic Synthesis Laboratory (ASL) enables the students to investigate various modeling methods and theories, synthesize algorithms in the mechanical, biomedical and industrial systems, and abstraction. Most of the skills learnt here is algorithm based. Computer science and engineering students benefit the most out of these laboratories since they are able to come up with models of real working systems then implement them later in the design (Liu,Spanias,Banavar, Thiagarajan,  Ramamurthy,  Hu,  & Zhang,  2011). The automated modeling laboratory helps the students and the teachers develop methodologies and systems to aid engineers develop models and simulate various tasks. The laboratory if well-equipped facilitates the student’s ability to develop algorithms and tools that support the step by step process of development of models. They are able to document the models accuracy, quality and efficacy from the instrumentation in the lab. The laboratories have virtual experiment software that enables self-guided learning processes. This is achieved through video content that scaffolds to assist the students who are pursuing STEM related courses. Students are given the rare opportunity to access various online resources, and supplemental concepts and content, and simulations (Lesh, 2013). The labs also have their content linked humanity and arts thus promoting intercourse engagement of the learners with the course content. The laboratories which are referred to as 21st century labs help students have hands on experience and prepares them for STEM careers and the college or university education. The labs make the learning progress easy, since they have almost everything digitized unlike the wet lab that made learning boring experience. Access to eBooks, replacing the manual laboratory manuals have supplemented the written content and are accessible on mobile devices meaning that the student can engage in learning the rules even when far from the hard copies (Merisotis & Kee,  2006). STEM education laboratories have been referred to as Smart Labs. They enable the learners to apply the cutting edge technology to academic and standard based projects. The authentic systems assess real learning and aid in developing the 21st century skills. The laboratories have made learners perform better in core units and courses. The chances of dropping out are therefore reduced. The learning process is simplified and can be done without engaging the teachers since all the information required is available in the online arena (Robidoux, n.d). The study of naval engineering, turbo machinery, aeronautics, energy and biomedical engineering is made easy through the computational flow physics laboratories. The research is based on numerical analysis and physical modeling to uncover the essential concepts in physics such as fluid mechanics. Here the student is able to learn complex multiple scale flows like multiphase flow, high velocity flows and shock waves, turbulence, plasma dynamics and non-Newton flows. As they do these experiments they are able to create three dimensional image of the flow system and simulate them. They are then able to make appropriate documentation in regard to their observation. Another important facility in the STEM integrated education is the design lab. This laboratory is very essential in any design related process. The students and teachers are able to design various project from ideas that they develop. Most work of design is done on the computer. The design of Environments, smart materials and structures has made the development of new technology based product that has received application in most industries. Most ladies and the disabled who were limited to leaning STEM based courses can now do so easily (Franzblau, Romney, Faux & DeRosa, 2011). There has been appropriate design of the labs to take care of every group of students. The ladies are able to learn the ideas from the available virtual assistance platforms that are present in the laboratories. The microelectronics laboratory aids semiconductor and fabrication based research. The instrumentation in the lab includes the class complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), chemical planarization instruments and rapid thermal processing equipment. The facility needs continuous upgrade as a result of the changes in technology. This equips the students with skills in handling microelectronics and also boosts their innovation as they are able to interact with the systems. According to Tomei, (2008), through the interaction the students develop systems that are efficient and replace the existing ones that are obsolete in a way. The students who have interest in machines work with the machine shop equipment found in the engineering laboratory facilities. The machine has conventional machine tools and milling and lathes machines that are used for repetitive tasks. The machine is real time and is able to measure the accuracy of machines all in one place. As the students interact with the machine tool they develop and retain required skills ("MIT Lincoln Laboratory: Facilities," n.d). Shortcomings of the Integrated System of Education As indicated in earlier parts of this essay, the needs in the job market are changing and so calling upon for a solid background in science which was the main motive of starting the integrated STEM education system. The US government for instance has invested heavily into the idea. Every year the project receives $4.3 billion to fund the STEM related projects. However, as much as the idea is good and should be embraced to empower the young generation scientifically, there some issues which need to be addressed to make the laboratories a success. The first problem is gender representation as the workers working in the initiative are majorly male. According to Vinay Trivendi who is the author of ‘How to Speak Tech, Entrepreneur, and Investor’, the workers comes from the higher socio-economic backgrounds and they are either Caucasian or Asian leaving out women and other people who emerge from the lower socio-economic stratum. This needs to be addressed to ensure that people from all levels get equal chances and avoid bias in the system. The second major shortcoming that is being witnessed in the deliberation of this initiative is teacher quality and the number of teachers in the field. The laboratories that are meant to serve as fields where the students culture their ideas need high quality teachers which can get the best from the students. Anything short of that would derail the achievement of the goals set in the establishment of the initiative. There are less labs than needed. As Burke and McNeill (2014) put it, for the idea to succeed, an environment favorable to online education should be created to ensure that all the students have an equal and fair access to quality STEM education (Web). Some of the money and resources channeled towards the initiative should be used in the construction of more laboratories to elevate the levels of information that the students get. Conclusion The establishment of the integrated STEM education system was a good idea to empower students scientifically. This is important to arm them well in addressing the demands in the market as highlighted in the above paragraphs. Laboratories are important in any scientific work. To access information that they need, the students’ needs to have an access to the internet and this calls for effort to ensure that the information they access is quality and timely (FY13 Funded Proposal, n.d). The workers in the system need to be enough to handle the workload they are subjected to. The quality of the teachers is also an important factor when it comes to the achievement of the goals set in the establishment of the integrated STEM education system. References Burke, L. & McNeill, J. B. (2014). ‘Educate to Innovate’: How the Obama Plan for Stem Education Falls Short. The Heritage Foundation. Available at. Crippen, K. J., & Archambault, L. (2012). Scaffolded Inquiry-Based Instruction with Technology: A Signature Pedagogy for STEM Education. Computers in The Schools. doi:10.1080/07380569.2012.658733 Franzblau, C., Romney, C. A., Faux, R., & DeRosa, D. (2011). Mobile laboratory programs as vehicles to promote STEM education in K-12 and beyond. doi:10.1109/FIE.2011.6142774 FY13 Funded Proposal: Engaging undergraduates in STEM laboratories using emerging technologies for teaching and learning | Information Technology Services. (n.d.). Retrieved from American Society of Civil Engineers. (2004). International Conference on Urban Drainage, Urban drainage 2002: Global solutions for urban drainage. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers. Lesh, R. A. (2013). Modeling students mathematical modeling competencies: ICTMA 13. Dordrecht: Springer. Liu, J., Spanias, A., Banavar, M. K., Thiagarajan, J. J., Ramamurthy, K. N., Hu, S., & Zhang, X. (2011). Work in progress. Interactive signal-processing labs and simulations on IOS devices. doi:10.1109/FIE.2011.6143046 Merisotis, J. P., & Kee, A. M. (2006). A Model of Success. The Model Institutions for Excellence Program? Decade of Leadership in STEM Education. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education. doi:10.1177/1538192706288422 MIT Lincoln Laboratory: Facilities. (n.d.). Retrieved from Robidoux, K. (n.d). The Science of Learning: Designing the STEM Learning Facilities of the Future. Retrieved from Trivedi, V. (2014). What’s Wrong with STEM Education? Available at. STEM Discovery Lab | University of New Hampshire at Manchester. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://manchester.unh.edu/outreach/stem-discovery-lab Tomei, L. A. (2008). Encyclopedia of information technology curriculum integration. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Read More