Enriching STEM curriculums with integration of MIT BLOSSOMS and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)

Across the nation students' enrolment and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are on the decline. BLOSSOMS project has been introduced as an initiative on addressing the issue, where teachers are trained to design and develop a BLOSSOMS' educational interactive video of STEM lessons with the integration of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) approach. The various reactions and responses from the teachers are recorded emphasizing on their needs and challenges in completing the task. A total of 148 online semi-structured questionnaires were collected, followed by in-depth interviews with five teachers who were involved in the project. This study creates an awareness of the needs to further extend BLOSSOMS project. Also, to highlight issues of concern related to teachers' lack of content knowledge mastery of STEM subject.

I. Introduction

BLOSSOMS which means Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math Studies is an educational interactive video project initiated by a group of educators from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT), USA. BLOSSOMS project highlights the importance of ‘real life experience’ or the relevance of learning science, math, engineering and technology (STEM) to everyday life at the high school level. There are more than 100 BLOSSOMS videos were produced by the trainers from the United States with colleagues from Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Singapore. Malaysia is the sixth country involved in the MIT video projects BLOSSOMS.