The Effectiveness of Teaching a Science Subject Unit Designed Based on the STEM Approach on Developing the Scientific Concepts Among the Fifth- Grade Pupils at Al Iman School – Kingdom of Bahrain

The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of teaching a science unit designed based on the STEM approach on developing scientific concepts for fifth grade students at Al Iman School School-Kingdom of Bahrain. The study sought to verify the hypothesis stated that there are statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group in learning scientific concepts taught using the STEM approach, and the mean score of the control group taught the same content traditionally. The study utilized the systematic approach to design the proposed science unit and develop the required learning material, the experimental research approach with a quasi-experimental research design to test the above hypothesis. The study sample consisted of 40 pupils from the fifth grade of primary school who are studying in Al-Iman schools. This sample was divided into two groups, an experimental group - section (A), composed of 20 fifth grade students, and a control group –section (B), composed of 20 fifth grade students. To assess the impact of the independent variable represented in the teaching method i.e. (teaching a unit using the STEM approach versus teaching the same unit traditionally) on the dependent variable represented in learning the scientific concepts included in the STEM curriculum, the study used the following tools (1) An achievement test in scientific concepts (for the third unit of the fifth grade science subject) prepared by the subject teacher (researcher) to measure achievement; (2) The unit developed using the STEAM approach was prepared by the subject teacher (researcher). Data analysis revealed that there were statistically significant differences at (p ≤0.01) between the mean scores of the experimental group and the control group in the post application of the scientific concepts test in favor of the experimental group. Results also showed a notable high degree of interaction from the experimental group who were taught by the new curriculum developed using the STEM approach was also reported. The study recommends adopting the STEM approach for teaching science at the primary level, and the necessity of training teachers to design lessons based on the new curriculum.