Enhancing STEM competence by making electronic musical pencil for nonengineering students Abstract   STEM education has received increasing attention in recent years. Researchers have indicated that STEM learning activities should be closely connected to realworld problems to facilitate studentsu0027 learning and foster positive STEM attitudes. In response to this recommendation, this study aims to investigate the effectiveness of nonengineering studentsu0027 making electronic musical pencil on their STEM competence. An instructional design based on knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) enhancement framework was proposed. Data were collected from 22 nonengineering students, the experimental results show that the effect of making electronic musical pencil by adopting the KSA enhancement framework on nonengineering students not only produces positive STEM competence learning outcomes according to Bloomu0027s taxonomy but also enhances learnersu0027 attitude changes towards STEM.

Formative assessment with interactive whiteboards: A oneyear longitudinal study of primary studentsxe2x80x99 mathematical performance Abstract   The popularity of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) has grown and, in many countries, are nearly ubiquitous. Nevertheless, a lack of training, among other factors, has led to teachers misusing, or even abandoning this technology. While IWBs should improve learning outcomes, few studies have evaluated the impact of longterm IWBbased instruction. The purpose of this study is to track changes in the mathematical performance through formative assessment (FA) for primary school students participating in an IWB Formative Assessment (FA) system, characterized by elements including feedback, social learning through discussions, agentive learning through personalized options, and gamebased learning featuring amonggroup competition and withingroup collaboration. A convenience sample of 178xe2x80xafsgrade students from the same grade (four classes) participated in the study, which lasted one school year. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was utilized to analyze data from the IWB system, revealing the following: (1) a significant correlation between studentsxe2x80x99 involvement in formative IWB activities and mathematics achievement (txe2x80xafxe2x80xaf6.52; pxe2x80xafxe2x80xaf0.00); (2) no effect of gender on initial mathematics performance; (3) a significant role of student motivational goals on initial mathematics performance, with higher masteryavoidance associated with better initial assessments (txe2x80xafxe2x80xaf2.02, pxe2x80xafxe2x80xaf0.04) and higher performanceavoidance associated with lower initial assessments (txe2x80xafxe2x80xafxe2x88x922.60, pxe2x80xafxe2x80xaf0.03); (4) interaction between gender and linear change, with girls outperforming boys (txe2x80xafxe2x80xafxe2x88x922.57, pxe2x80xafxe2x80xaf0.01) in FA performance over time (although boys made advances on summative assessments); and (5) a negative interaction of masteryavoidance with linear change, where higher levels of masteryavoidance were associated with a greater decline in FA performance over time (txe2x80xafxe2x80xafxe2x88x922.57, pxe2x80xafxe2x80xaf0.01). In short, the research findings suggest that if teachers use IWBbased FA over a relatively long time, they must pay special attention to boys and those who hold high masteryavoidance goals.