Have you ever heard of STEM education? STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. It means students can learn these four subjects in one class. They can also work on many projects to practice what they learn. STEM education is very popular in the US.
Now many Chinese schools start to use STEM education. More than 600 middle schools are using it, and Beijing Yuying School is one of them.
The school started the course in May. It invited college teachers to teach more than 80 students about programming, robotics and other interdisciplinary (跨学科的) knowledge.
The teaching style is quite different from the traditional education. Once students get basic knowledge, they will practice it immediately. For example, after learning about the electrical circuit (电路), students are required to design one that can control three lights at the same time.
They also have many projects to improve their hands-on abilities. Once, they needed to make a smart home model in a competition. All the students were required to design a house model and make it smart. Liu Tianyou, 12, with his teammates, used computer programs and censors (传感器) to finish it. "If you open the door, the lights will turn on automatically," he said. Their work won the third prize.
The course also develops students' creativity. Zhao Hongyi, 14, particularly likes robots. After learning mechanics and programming in the class, he made a robot within two months. From assembling to testing, he finished it on his own. The robot can grasp things and walk on certain tracks under orders from him. "It's cool to make my dream come true," he said。
