How Interactive eBooks Are Revolutionizing STEM Education in K12 Classrooms

STEM, as we all know, refers to the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. As the name suggests, K12 education covers kindergarten and the first twelve years of a student’s basic education. These years involve studying a plethora of subjects, including STEM. 

The availability of STEM jobs in the US is projected to grow at 8.8% between 2017 and 2029. Meaning, that by 2025 there will be over 3.5 million STEM jobs in the US alone!

With these mind-boggling numbers, educators have begun to rethink their pedagogies to include more effective STEM education in their K12 classrooms, and better prepare their students for the world of work.  

Over the last couple of years, eBooks have taken over the education sector, and the outcome has been remarkable. With interactive eBooks and an application-based approach, educators are able to create more interesting STEM courses.  

Read on to explore how interactive eBooks are revolutionizing STEM education in K12 classrooms.

Here’s what we’ll cover.

Table of Contents 

• Why Encourage Students to Pursue a STEM Education?
• How eBooks Make Stem Education More Effective for K12 Learners

• • Active Learning
  • Personalized Learning Pathways
  • Problem-Based Learning (PBL)
  • Collaborative Learning

• Conclusion

There are numerous benefits, on various levels to pursuing an education in STEM.

To begin with, the primary focus of a STEM curriculum is to provide students with life-skills such as critical thinking, innovation, and problem-solving. These skills are not limited to any one field, and can be applied even in non-STEM careers in today’s knowledge-based economy. 

Secondly, careers in STEM not only pay well, they are also ever-expanding. App developers, data analysts, blockchain analysts and drone operators are all job titles that were created in the past decade or so. In today’s digital age, students with a STEM background will have more opportunities in their careers.

Lastly, careers in STEM tend to have a direct impact on the economy of a nation, due to which these jobs are encouraged and sometimes even subsidized by governments. 

Each component of STEM contributes to a well-rounded education. STEM learning equips learners with the skills needed to respond to real-world challenges. However, for a successful education in STEM, learners need to be inclined towards it. Additionally, educators need to ensure that there are no gaps in a student’s learning process. 

This is where interactive eBooks can help make STEM education more appealing and effective for K12 learners.

Here’s how:

Active learning is an approach that encourages students to actively participate in the learning process, allowing them to think critically, question what is being taught and form their own opinions on the subject matter. 

Interactive eBooks allow students to have a multi-sensory learning experience. Sometimes they might need to watch a video, while at other times they may need to participate in a game. This is especially useful in helping students retain STEM concepts, which could otherwise be quite complex to comprehend.

Moreover, the inclusion of gamification and quizzes make K12 learners eager to do better in class.

When teaching a STEM curriculum in K12 classrooms, it’s important for educators to give students the flexibility to create their own personalized learning pathways. This is because STEM subjects require a thorough understanding of each concept, before a student can move onto the next topic.

Interactive eBooks are handy in STEM learning as not all students learn at the same pace. eBooks make it easier to create personalized learning pathways for individual students. Aspects such as gamified learning and instant assessments help both students and teachers understand which areas of the subject need more attention.

With related diagrams, video files, audio files and animations in eBooks, students can choose to study the content in the format they prefer. This allows them to deepen their understanding of the subject, in a way that suits their learning styles.

Essentially, any subject in the field of STEM aims to solve real-world problems. Having said that, it only makes sense for educators to take a PBL approach to teaching STEM. 

Problem-based learning is a teaching methodology that puts the student in the driver’s seat. It is designed to encourage students to analyze a problem and suggest solutions, based on what they’ve been taught.

Interactive eBooks can be designed to provide learners with just the right amount of information they need at each step, instead of overloading them with too much information. These eBooks also allow for collaborative learning and additional research (when needed), which are crucial to a PBL model.

As mentioned above, STEM education swears by teamwork, as it allows learners to apply their technical knowledge to real-world problems. 

Working together on group projects improves a student’s research skills and teamwork abilities. This helps learners hugely in their careers later on and also makes them understand where they need to improve to perform better in the group.

Using interactive eBooks, educators can increase collaboration between students and also give them access to a range of research materials.

The primary education of any learner plays a crucial role in their future—how they are trained in the initial years of their education decides how they are going to be as students and what their career prospects will be. 

We live in an ever-changing world, and to survive in the workforce, we must keep pace with it. STEM learning aims to make learners flexible so they can quickly adapt to changes and work effortlessly, even in a competitive workforce. STEM is not just about bookish knowledge; it’s about real-world applications of knowledge. 

STEM in K12 classrooms greatly impacts the opportunities young learners will have at their disposal in the near future. 

Interactive eBooks have been instrumental in leveraging and revolutionizing STEM education for K12 learners. These eBooks have the ability to provide K12 students with world-class STEM programs.  

KITABOO is one of the world’s leading digital publishing platforms designed specifically for the education space. It allows for the creation, publishing and distribution of interactive educational content. KITABOO can help take your K12 STEM education content forward, by leaps and bounds. 

To know how, write to us at contact@kitaboo.com.