STEM: AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN SOCIAL SKILLS

CLAIRA WILSON, DRONE LEGENDS

In the deepest crevices of our biology, we are wired for connection. The philosopher Aristotle once wrote, “Man is by nature a social animal. ” More recently Michael Platt, Ph.D., a biological anthropologist from the University of Pennsylvania ’ s Perelman School of Medicine, asserted, “Human beings are wired to connect. It allows us to come together and do things that we wouldn ’t be able to do on our own. ”

Our screen-filled lives in business, school, and home disconnect us from nature, from ourselves, and from others. Children, in particular, should be interacting with each other and learning the essential life skill of group work.

STEM is a Place to Practice Group Work in the Classroom

According to Forbes Magazine (2020), the ability to work effectively in a team is the most desired trait in an employee. An employer hopes for varied approaches and thoughts from their employees to provide innovative and groundbreaking solutions at work. However, a basic set of shared values acts as the glue that binds successful teams together and encourages a positive workplace.

How do we get more adults who work effectively in teams? We give them more practice while they are in school. STEM projects are a perfect avenue to foster teamwork, as science and engineering are highly collaborative fields.

Imagine a student trying to figure out how to clean a water supply. Their individual knowledge and skills probably fall short of the task. But if several students get together and each one takes ownership over one piece of the project, they can come together and effectively build a solution.

Take the professional Jet Propulsion Laboratory ’ s approach to space missions. JPL had noticed their engineers and scientists worked hard...but separate. The thermal engineer ’ s work affected the power engineer ’ s work, but the two engineers did not collaborate. Even high communication between groups is no match for the benefits of working in the same room as a unified team. Getting input early from each member of the team makes for stronger proposals and leaner missions.

Benefits of Group Work

Aside from the natural imperative of group work, there are many advantages to collaboration:

A group of students has more knowledge and experience than a single student; Working in a group increases each student’ s motivation to learn and grow; Students retain information better from group discussions than other modes of presentation; Working in a group helps students gain selfawareness and an understanding of their unique strengths, and; Students get an opportunity to gain interpersonal skills like listening, contributing, empathy, and disagreeing appropriately.

But group work in school is often unpopular among students. Several common problems arise in a group setting:

Talkative students overshadow their quieter peers who may feel their ideas are not valued, one student may end up carrying an uneven share of the workload;

Creativity is born from a desire for individuality, so often working in a group dampens a person ’ s ability to be creative;

Working in a group takes more time because students have to sift through different perspectives and methods for a problem, and;

Students may feel pressure to conform to the majority opinion, even if they feel confident it is not correct.

How to Make Group Work Effective

Simply grouping students at desks while calling out answers to individual questions is not teaching our students proper teamwork. Instead, we should mimic the workforce and provide wellstructured team projects as often as possible.

Each student needs a unique job within a larger project that suits their skills and background. A team at a company might consist of a project manager, a writer, a designer, a subject matter expert, and a quality control expert. Likewise, a team in a school should consist of several unique jobs for each student to choose from, work independently within a group, and pass their completed work to another group member.

Each member brainstorms, develops, and creates their pieces. They then come together to give one another feedback and flesh out the ideas. They then return to their individual spaces and improve their work before returning to the group to collaborate again. Students will discuss, challenge, and refine their ideas before returning to do more individual work with these refined ideas. Completing teamwork ensures everyone has a meaningful job that they are accountable to their group for completing. They gain a sense of belonging as they contribute to the greater good.

Effective teams also need a high level of trust between members. To feel safe giving and receiving candid feedback, team members must have a strong relationship with one another. Students develop that trust by working with the same team over a significant period, doing teambuilding activities that are not directly related to the assigned task, and having a classroom culture where the teacher promotes healthy perspectives on failure, growth, and creativity.

How to do Effective STEM Groups

After-school programs incorporating STEM are perfect building grounds for teamwork and positive interaction. Ungraded work can take the pressure off students, and allow them to make mistakes, learn, and grow. Socialemotional learning (SEL) is high within STEM projects. Educators can foster students ’ selfawareness by highlighting and encouraging them when they catch good behavior and properly addressing the negative emotions that may come from frustration or failure at a project. There also exists the need for selfreflection: what did a student find challenging? What did they enjoy? The student can then identify the strengths they brought to the team, as well as combat frustrations.

STEM projects also allow students to practice responsible decision-making. The student is not only affecting their work, but they are also working within a team, and their actions have a ripple effect. Each student can take ownership over their role (say, scribe, engineer, scientist, or designer) and recognize how their work affects the team. These learned problem-solving skills improve emotional intelligence and social behavior. Through group work benefits and positive SEL development, STEM projects are extraordinary collaborative endeavors. After all, this is rocket science.

References

- Forbes Magazine. (2020). 14 Characteristics of High Performing Teams. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanres ourcescouncil/2020/09/16/14-characteristicsof-high-performing-teams/?sh=ffdb24716c66

Claira Wilson

Claira is the Director of Curriculum Development and Design for Drone Legends. Drone Legends is a community of awesome kids from across the country and abroad, learning and experiencing 21st-century skills through the magic of drones and imaginative curricula.