A STEAM X D WORKSHOP FOR PRE-UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: PREPARING STUDENTS FOR TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS

Abstract

In this work, we introduce the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)’s STEAM x D (STEAM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, and D = Design Thinking) multidisciplinary collaborative workshop, which was carried out for a total of 46 participating high school students (16-18-years old, 30% female). In this 5-day workshop, the students collaborated in teams of 4 to 5 members and interacted with 10 SUTD faculty members from several disciplines, 11 SUTD undergraduate helpers, and students from the Multi Rotor club to solve a design challenge. As part of our daVinci@SUTD immersion programme, which seeks to inspire youth in human-centred design and innovation that are grounded in STEM education fused with the understanding of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences to serve greater societal needs, students used a systems approach complemented with human-centric, design thinking, and technology-based elements, which prepared the students for a transdisciplinary application of competences. In general, survey feedback showed high levels of student engagement, awareness of using engineering, technology, and design thinking to solve real-life problems, and an overall students found the workshop useful. Design thinking was used to bridge the societal context (humanities, arts and social science) of real-life problems to the engineering and technological solutions through an interdisciplinary systems approach. This work will benefit those interested in transdisciplinary education, engineering design education, and those interested into finding principles for amalgamating faculty from different disciplines to work together into a meaningful and impactful project that prepares students towards a transdisciplinary application.