STEM Student Research Handbook

The importance of improving science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education has become a popular topic in recent years. But it is clear that the STEM education that today’s secondary school students receive rarely mirrors what individuals in STEM careers actually do. Students are focused more on memorisation than on identifying problems and finding ways to solve them. STEM Student Research Handbook engages students with the same inquiry skills used by STEM professionals. The handbook supports students as they prepare skills of designing and conducting experiments, and analysing and presenting their findings. A comprehensive resource for secondary school teachers and students, STEM Student Research Handbook outlines the various stages of large-scale research projects, enabling teachers to coach their students through the research process. 

This volume provides enough detail to embolden all teachers – even those who have never designed an experiment on their own – to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics student-researchers through the experimental process.

Early chapters – research design, background research, hypothesis writing and proposal writing – help students conceive and implement their projects. Later chapters on descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as graphical representations, help them correctly interpret their data. Final chapters enable students to effectively communicate their results by writing and documenting a STEM research essay, as well as by preparing for oral and poster presentations. Included are student handouts, checklists, presentation observation sheets and sample assessment rubrics.