Embedding creative thinking skills on undergraduate students through STEM course

Rahma Suwarma, I., Widodo, A., & Kadarohman, A. (2020). Embedding creative thinking skills on undergraduate students through STEM course, In SH. Paik, KH. Cho, M. Ha, & YH. Kim (Eds.), International Conference on the Advancement of STEAM 2020 : Borderless Connectivity (pp. 1-6).

Embedding creative thinking skills on undergraduate students through STEM course a

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Irma Rahma Suwarma , Ari Widodo , and Asep Kadarohman * a

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Dr. Setiabudhi No 229, Bandung, 40154, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract: Rapid technological advanced has been impacting the education frameworks around the world. The increasing of robotics, artificial intelligences, big data, internet of things generate reformation in the curriculum on defining student’s learning outcomes that should fulfill the demands of the worldwide workforce. One of the learning outcomes is students should have creative thinking skills in solving problems. We developed a STEM course to create students who can solve problems in multi-discipline integrative thinking. It was developed as an effort in embedding creative thinking skills on students. A theme of this course discusses ‘advanced materials’ that were focusing on the application of Arduino-UNO in solving daily problems. This is a single case study on undergraduate students’ creative thinking skills profile in generating solutions to observed daily problems. They are 50 students who take STEM course as a compulsory subject in the first semester. They were divided into ten groups and showed ten different creative thinking skills profiles. It results that most groups showed an emerging level of creative thinking skills.

Keywords: Creative thinking skills, STEM course, Arduino-UNO.

1. INTRODUCTION

creativity in higher education, especially in teacher students who will hold an essential role in improving students’ creativity in the future. Most science teachers said that they faced difficulties in generating STEM learning that can improve students’ creativity [10]. They perceived that not all contents in Indonesia National Curriculum could be embedded in STEM-based learning [11], and need continuous training programs to improve the pedagogy skills in implementing STEM-based learning. These facts drove us to produce creative teacher students by developing a STEM course. It also triggered by the current global workforce demands of creative thinking skills.

There are many definitions of creativity, none of which is universally accepted [18]. It is a complex thing that can not be assessed by a single tool. When it is assessed, it means it assesses its characteristics. Recently, studies of creativity characteristics are famous among education researchers. Some were developing an instructional design to build creative thinking skills [1][2][3], it showed that problem based instructional design could build creative thinking skills better than the conventional instructional design. Some were developing assessment tools to observe its characteristics based on self-report data and rubric sources[4][5].

Creativity studies in Indonesia were conducted in some elementary and secondary students. The results showed that elementary students had low creative thinking skills and its different in every grade level; the higher the grade level, the greater the creativity score[6][7]. For secondary students, it was found that the implementation of STEM-based learning has a major impact on the improvement of students’ creative thinking skills [8][9]. However, there are not many studies of

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 STEM Course Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) course is one of the compulsory subjects that should be taken by first-semester undergraduate students in Science and Math Education Faculty at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI). This is an interdisciplinary course that integrates STEM discipline to remove the traditional barriers erected between the four disciplines.

It involves science and engineering practices through the problem and project-based learning methods to build literacies and skills. If it is expected that the students will be literate in Technology and Engineering in science learning then they should have real experience through science learning that addresses the particular needs and

__________ Manuscript received June 3, 2020; revised June 20, 2020; accepted June 26, 2020.

 Corresponding author Tel.: +62 857 2298 5471; e-mail: Irma.rs@upi.edu

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Rahma Suwarma, I., Widodo, A., & Kadarohman, A.

interests of individual students. So that in this course students were given global STEM issues in energy and advanced material. They were challenged to observe and find the problem on their surroundings related to the issues after they got a lecture about it. In all lecture sessions, it used media and technology because it could help students understand the scientific and engineering concept and improve students’ motivation [12]. This paper will be focused on the “advanced material” issues.

Rapid technological advanced has been impacting the human lifestyle around the world. The increasing of robotics, artificial intelligences, big data, Internet of things generates idea to invite “advanced material” issues in these courses.

The technology that we induced was Arduino-UNO. The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328 (datasheet). It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started [13]. The Uno differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use the FTDI USBto-serial driver chip. Instead, it features the Atmega16U2 (Atmega8U2 up to version R2) programmed as a USBto-serial converter. "Uno" means one in Italian and is named to mark the upcoming release of Arduino 1.0. The Uno and version 1.0 will be the reference versions of Arduino, moving forward (Fig.1).

discipline views. After that students asked to observe and find the problem in their surroundings that could be solved using sensor, actuator, and Arduino-UNO. After they found the problem, they were asked to propose the solution idea and consult it with the lecturer. If it is possible to be done, then they could make the design and prototype. The detail of the learning activities of this course is described in Table 1.

Table 1. Learning activities of STEM Courses Meeting Students’ Activities Understanding the fact-finding of automation technology in daily life and industry, how it 1st works, and the function.

Understanding the principal work of Arduino-UNO Practice using Arduino-UNO in creating a simple electric circuit and the traffic light system. nd 2 Home Project: identifying problems in their surrounding (neighborhood or university environment) Present the problem that was found and 3rd proposed the solution idea by embedding Arduino-UNO Design and present the solution’s prototype.

4th Home project: creating and testing the prototype Present the progress of the project, analyze 5th and discuss the lack of the prototype then redesign it to optimize its work.

6th Recreating, retesting the prototype 7th Present the final report of the project Sharing the project result to the community th 8 by creating video then uploaded in YouTube

2.2 Creativity There are some definitions of creativity. For instance, Brandt (1986) defined creativity as a personal way of using and directing your own abilities; Marianne Guldbrandsen (as cited in Peter Bell, [14]) defined creativity as the generation of new ideas either by new ways of looking at existing problems or seeing new opportunities. John Penick [15] wrote that in the process, a creative person might restructure the problem rather than merely seeking a solution to the problem presented.

A question to stimulate creativity must require and allows multiple possible answers and demand action.

Torrence[16], who has developed tests of creative thinking, describes creativity as being responsive to problems, insufficiencies, lack of information, unavailable elements and inconsistencies and as identifying challenges, searching for solutions, making predictions, building hypothesis regarding deficiencies or changing hypothesis, choosing one of the solution methods and trying, trying again and presenting the results afterward. Moreover, Torrence and Goff (1989) stated that creative thinking is not a singular talent; but it

Figure 1. Arduino-UNO There were several definitions of media. Media could be brought to the classroom through visuals, sounds, smells, and tastes. It could also be brought as technology or using technology [12]. In this research, it was limited to the media as technology, where the media in STEMbased learning that focuses to complement students' understanding by creating its media as a prototype of the proposed solution. Students were guided to build a prototype of their proposed solution related to the problem that they found.

The course of ‘advanced material’ issues consists of eight learning activities. In the first meeting, students analyze the data, facts, and impact of advanced technology in daily life that given by the lecturer. Then in the second meeting students got the information of Arduino-UNO, sensor, and actuator application in multi-

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Embedding creative thinking skills on undergraduate students through STEM course

contains many talents within. Taking something from its simple form and detailing, enriching, and developing that something and describing it differently than others and conventional ways is characteristics of creativity.

There are several ways to assess creativity. It depends on how do we assess the concept of creativity that we refer to. Torrance developed the instrument to assess the ‘capacity of creativity’, which is TTCT (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking). He developed two forms of creative thinking test; verbal and figural.

Torrance’s main focus was on understanding and nurturing qualities that help people express their creativity. The tests were not designed to simply measure creativity, but instead to serve as tools for its enhancement. He suggested the following uses for the tests: a) to understand the human mind and its functioning and development, b) to discover effective bases for individualizing instruction, c) to provide clues for remedial and psychotherapeutic programs, d) to evaluate the effects of educational programs, materials, curricula, and teaching procedures, and e) to be aware of latent potential. The scoring systems refer to five subscales below: a. Fluency: The number of relevant ideas; shows an

design, notwork prototyp e

Flexibility

ability to produce a number of figural images. b. Originality: The number of statistically infrequent ideas; shows an ability to produce uncommon or unique responses. The scoring procedure counts the most common responses as 0 and all other legitimate responses as 1. The originality lists have been prepared for each item on the basis of normative data, which are readily memorized by scorers. c. Elaboration: The number of added ideas;

Adapted from Torrance's creativity definition, we develop a rubric of creative thinking skills (RCTS) to assess students’ creative thinking skills based on their ideas, design, and prototype. There are four aspects; fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Each aspect consists of indicators that define the characteristics of the creative thinking skills level. It was categorized into not yet evident, emerging, expressing, and excelling. Table 2 describes the rubric description.

Table 2. Rubric creative thinking skills description

Fluency

Emerging

Expressing

Excelling

Propose a small number of idea,

Propose numbers of the idea, detail

Propose a large number of idea,

Elaboration

The idea, design, prototyp e include a concept of one disciplin e

more detail design, workwell prototype

Produce a rigid idea, design, prototype

Produce a variety of idea, design, prototype

Combine a variety of ideas, design, prototype

The idea, design, prototype is less expected from other group ideas without neglecting the basic principle

The idea, design, prototype is most unique from other ideas without neglectin g the basic principle

The idea, design, prototype combine concepts of two discipline

The idea, design, prototype integrate the multidiscipline concept

The idea, design, prototype has less common with the other group

The idea, design, prototype combine concepts from one discipline

This is qualitative research with a case study method.

The purpose is to find out students’ creative thinking skills when joining STEM course as a compulsory subject for the first semester students. The sample is one class of 50 undergraduate students that were divided into ten groups. It was chosen purposively from 16 classes of the course. The students come from 6 different majors (physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and science education). Each group consists of 5 students from different majors so that hopefully they can share their ideas from a different point of view based on their major.

The source of data comes from observation and interview of proposed solution ideas and prototype. It was assessed using the developed rubric (RCTS) and analyze descriptively based on the interactive data model, such as data presentation, conclusion drawing, and verification.

d. Abstractions of Titles: The degree beyond labeling; based on the idea that creativity requires an abstraction of thought. It measures the degree a title moves beyond concrete labeling of the pictures drawn.

Not yet evident Propose one idea, undetail

Originality

The idea, design, prototyp e is the same as the other group

design, and worked prototype

3. METHOD

demonstrates the subject’s ability to develop and elaborate on ideas.

Category Aspect

Produce classic idea, design, prototyp e

less detail design, less work of prototype

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The creative thinking skills came when students were challenged to observe and find the problem in their surroundings then proposed the idea solutions. They 3

Rahma Suwarma, I., Widodo, A., & Kadarohman, A.

found the problem related to the application of advanced material issues so that it should be a complex daily problem that needs to be solved using high technology.

They should understand the work and function of sensors, actuators, and the internet of things. Creative thinking skills also needed when they build the prototype of its solution. It should be convinced that it works in solving the problems as it designed.

Since the Arduino-UNO is invited in every solution, students need to choose other specific materials that can support the solution idea. A list of the materials was introduced and explored in the first and second meetings of the lecture. The choice of materials and their correlation to the problems also assessed as one of the creative thinking skills indicators.

The creative thinking skills profile that assessed based on RCTS toward the problem, proposed idea, design, and prototype is described in Table 3.

integration of STEM discipline on the idea when they are interviewed in the presentation session. This level category suggests that characteristic of creative thinking skills can often be observed in the group’s typical behavior.

The identified problem by group (1) is related to pets.

They said that nowadays more and more people are raising pets, either as housekeepers like dogs or even raising animals as playmates like cats. However, it cannot be denied that many people did not have time to feed their pets because of their activities. Therefore, these animals become neglected, and it even death. So, they proposed an idea to create an automatic pet feeder by integrating Arduino-UNO. They draw a detailed design and the prototype can work well even though using simple media.

Group (2) found that problems relating to the energy crisis are often the subject of discussion among Indonesian citizens in the 21st century. By using advanced materials in the form of Arduino and some media such as PIR sensors, jumper cables, and LEDs a device can be made in the form of motion detectors that can save energy. They didn’t present the detailed design; it only focused on the program flow chart. It is not a new idea in daily life, and they did not add new material to the prototype.

Group (3) suggested that feeding a fish is a must thing that the fish keeper has to do, the fish keeper’s busy life became one of the main reasons for forgetting the feeding time. This tool aims to help the fish keeper in feeding the fish by integrating the Arduino-UNO, servo module, and RTC module in a special container that has been filled with fish food. It is designed to spin at 8.00 am and 5.00 pm, so the food will fall. The testing media is 95x35x35 cm aquarium consists of thirteen baby fish.

They analyzed that from two times of feeding the fish in a day, there’s no fish food left and it means that the fish ate all the food. Meanwhile, at three times of feeding the fish in a day, there’s a fish food left in the aquarium and it means that two times feeding is enough. The prototype was well created even though it is not fulfilling a sellable criterion.

Group (4) observed that most accidents generally occur on the highway. There are still many road users who do not obey traffic lights, for example, motorists who break traffic lights and pedestrians who cross without seeing the traffic lights. Nearly 65 percent of victims of traffic accidents are pedestrians. They have proposed an idea to make a tool that can facilitate pedestrians to cross the main road and to minimize accidents on the highway.

They design an interactive traffic light by creating a button to control the traffic light. If the button is pressed, it will activate a red light for vehicles and green lights for pedestrians. It is a common tool in daily life; however, they can create a brief prototype using simple media.

Group (5) identified that some people can sleep with the lights off, but there are also some people who cannot sleep when the lights off. They turn on the lights when they sleep; it is a waste of energy. Therefore, they decided to make an automatic sleep lamp to save energy.

Table 3. Creative thinking skills (CTS) profile CTS Group (1)

Product theme pet feeder

Idea

Design

Prototype

Expressing

Expressing

Excelling

(2)

energy saver

Emerging

Emerging

(3)

fish feeder

Expressing

Expressing

Expressing

(4)

traffic light

Emerging

Emerging

Emerging

(5)

sleep Lamp

Not yet evident

Emerging

Emerging

(6)

recap tool

Emerging

Expressing

Expressing

(7)

trash bin

Emerging

Emerging

Emerging

(8)

gas detector

Emerging

Expressing

Expressing

(9)

lamp

Emerging

Emerging

Expressing

clothesline protector

Expressing

Expressing

Excelling

(10)

Not yet evident

Table 3 described that 2 groups showed ‘not yet evident’s of creative thinking skills characteristics. The proposed single idea that is classic, and the same as the other group in another class. Furthermore, based on the interview on the presentation session, they can not explain its multidiscipline concept that integrated on the idea. In this level category, indicates that, in relation to information from the data sources, the group's present level of performance does not reveal characteristics or behaviors that are consistent with the selected definition of creativity.

There are 5 groups in the emerging level category of the idea. It indicates that there is limited evidence of creativity characteristics in the group’s present performance. The ideas are in common and it is rigid in design and prototype. This idea already exists in daily life. They didn’t make a lot of change from the original idea. The interview results told that the idea combines concepts from one discipline point of view.

Finally, there are 2 groups that showed expressing the level of creative thinking skills characteristics. The idea is less expected from other groups, it new and less common found in daily life. They can explain the 4

Embedding creative thinking skills on undergraduate students through STEM course

They used Bluetooth sensors on this Arduino. It connected to an Android-based application on the user's phone. After connecting, users can set a timer on the application to determine when the lights will turn off.

When the timer has been determined, the application will send a signal to the Bluetooth sensor, which will be forwarded to Arduino. After that, Arduino will give a signal to the lamp. Even though it’s not a new idea, they applied Bluetooth sensors to enhance the exiting technology.

Group (6) created a tool that can simplify the process of recap data in the library. The tool’s name is Recap Data of Library Visitors use RFID. It can handle problems that often occur in the process of recap data, such as stacking queue because recap data still were done using pen and paper. In addition, this tool works replacing paper so that no paper waste occurs and can directly save visitor data on the computer in MS. Excel.

The main components of the tool are Arduino Uno R3 and RFID MFRC522 module. The RFID module serves to detect the identity card that has the RFID chip in it which will then be translated by the Arduino using the Arduino application. Once the card is detected, using PLX-DAQ that reads the chip from the card, the identity shown on the card is stored in Ms. Excel.

Group (7) thought that the reluctance of someone to open trash because they feel dirty or disgusted. So that, to solved the problem, they applied advanced materials to dry bins to work automatically. They created a simple prototype using a small trash bin, but it cannot work well in the presentation session.

Group (8) analyzed that the rise of fire accidents caused by leakage and explosion of LPG gas cylinders lately, become a scary thing for gas users. The absence of a reminder makes many people do not know if there is a gas leak because the gas cannot be seen. This group proposed a gas detector that is expected to be useful for the community. Although the idea is common, the design in detail and the prototype can work well.

Group (9) informed new breakthroughs in technology that can benefit human life in the modern era. The idea is to turn on the lights using the hands’ clap twice. This is based on their own experience, which sometimes feels difficult to find a light switch when the room is dark.

With this idea, they will no longer have trouble finding a light switch to turn on the lights when the room is dark.

Only by clapping twice, the lamp will automatically turn on by itself. They used a sound sensor that works to detect clapping sounds.

The last, group (10) told a problem experienced by many people, especially housewives, which is about drying clothes, the problem is caused by seasonal changes that can make clothes wet back, so they made an innovation, CLOPRO (Cloth line Protector), which is a protective tool for drying clothes from the rain.

CLOPRO roof will close automatically when the sensor detects water, so this tool will protect the clothes. The CLOPRO miniature framework was created using 4DFrame (Fig. 2). The designs adjusted to the clothesline on the market so that it can use more effectively and

simply. The reason they use 4DFrame is to make it easier than string and it easier on calculating the scale between the miniature and the actual tool. They chose the suitable media on prototype because 4DFrame was designed to simpler the building processes. It is low technology but has high technology ‘taste’. Furthermore, it can improve the mathematical ability and attitude of young children [17].

(a) (b) Fig 2. (a) Arduino-UNO circuit, (b) 4DFrame prototype Based on those characteristics, most groups showed the emerging level. Treffinger [18] said that the instructional options or services associated with gifted/talented programming would not be appropriate for the student at the present time. Again, it is possible to define learning activities that would be appropriate for the student at this level, and it would be appropriate to adopt a "watch and wait" strategy, monitoring the student's on-going performance for indicators of increasing confidence and competence in creativity-related behavior. However, based on the prototype works, some of the groups were in expressing level. It can be suggested that they need certain kinds of services may be particularly appropriate.

Students who are expressing creativity characteristics regularly in their performance certainly demonstrate a need for activities and services that are appropriate and challenging in relation to their creativity. Whether or not those are considered "gifted education services" may depend on the specific programming model the school uses as much or more as it reflects a certain level of "creative ability" in the student. In many ways, the difference between the "expressing" and "excelling" levels may often be related to opportunities and instruction.

5. CONCLUSION Instructional learning in STEM course was developed to train students’ creative thinking skills. It is started when students asked to find the problem in daily life and proposed the solution ideas. The results showed that most students were in emerging level, and some of them were in expressing level. This data should become a consideration for developing learning instruction in the class to build better creative thinking skills. Thus, we recommend more emphasizing students’ creativity profile before planning the lesson to design the best learning instruction.

6. FURTHER RESEARCH 5

Rahma Suwarma, I., Widodo, A., & Kadarohman, A.

Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) skills in this course will be studied in the future. The students’ attitude in a collaborative setting environment might influence the students' achievement in solving the problem and producing the prototype.

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Irma Rahma Suwarma received the Ph.D. degree in Science Education from Department Information Science and Technology, Shizuoka University. Her research interests include STEM education, creative thinking skills, collaborative problem solving, and multiple intelligences.

Ari Widodo Ari Widodo is a professor in science education at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung – Indonesia. His main research interests are constructivism and conceptual change, teaching and learning process, and teacher professional development.

Asep Kadarohman has been involved with studies recognizing students' abilities to work through synthesis organic pathways. He is a professor in chemistry at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia and had become president of the university (20172020).

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