Anyone who is good at something was, at first, terrible at it. I have no proof of it; but to me, this seems to be logically true. No one is born knowing anything (apart from knowing that chocolate tastes good, perhaps); and everything we do is either the result of a combination of previous experiences, or more fundamentally, the process of being bad at something and then learning what went wrong and improving. Sometimes it’s an iterative process; other times, things snap together quickly.
Unfortunately, not everyone is brilliant at everything straight away. And, while there is an argument for Darwinism in academia, there’s also an argument to encourage as many people as possible to succeed.
The world is full of scientific and political challenges that require scientific understanding. It seems the days of one Einstein-esque figure coming up with a single powerful idea that changes everything are over—if that ever truly existed.
The future appears to be a collaboration between many people, which means we need people to understand many things at varying levels, including the STEM subject you’re teaching, as well as students who are struggling with the assessments you’ve given them. Just because someone is behind the curve, it doesn’t mean they won’t be leading in the future.
In this blog, we will explore how Möbius can help identify and address student gaps in STEM education. We’ll also cover effective strategies to support your students in mastering STEM subjects.
Table of Contents:
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Möbius Helps You Support Your Students in STEM Education
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Identifying Student Weaknesses in STEM Learning with Targeted Feedback
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Using Möbius for STEM Education Success
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Using Mastery Assignments to Strengthen STEM Skills
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Gamifying Learning with Adaptive Assignments
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Building Problem-Solving Skills in STEM with Adaptive Questions
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Get Started with Möbius
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About the Author
Möbius Helps You Support Your Students in STEM Education
We all remember that one teacher or lecturer who went above and beyond for us at some point in our academic career. But, in an age where class sizes are exploding and teaching resources are shrinking, how can we help students in a way that lets us concentrate our efforts on those who truly need us to be like the teacher or lecturer who went above and beyond for us?
Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you’re already a Möbius user, or you’re looking to learn more about this platform and how it can enhance your teaching. Luckily, you’ve stumbled upon a set of solutions that can help you help your students.
Identifying Student Weaknesses in STEM Learning with Targeted Feedback
Most students have areas of a subject they don’t understand. However, not all students are aware of which areas those are exactly. Many students, during revision time, review everything and give it all the same attention. This approach is not ideal. As my old Maths teacher said, “When you revise, don’t use a blunderbuss, use a sniper rifle.” In other words, know what you struggle with and focus on that. There’s no need to spend a lot of time on things you’re good at already.
So, how can we instil this sage advice into our students when using Möbius?
Using Möbius for for STEM Education Success
To start, use our advanced policies to create constructive learning loops. You can set Möbius so that a student only starts a test after passing a previous lesson on the same material. If they fail a short test on a specific topic, they receive revision material instead of moving on to other activities.
Using Mastery Assignments to Strengthen STEM Skills
Möbius also offers “Mastery Assignments,” which are essentially beast-mode revision tests, and the student is shown their progress in each group of questions. These tests are great tools to help students identify their weak areas. A student can then choose to go back and look at previous revision material or some of the wonderful interactive Möbius lessons you’ve created for them.
Gamifying Learning with Adaptive Assignments
You can also create “Adaptive Assignments” that split larger revision tests into question groups. Based on the performance of a student in each of those groups, they could be shown revision material if their score wasn’t high enough or links to other revision material for those subject areas. They would then only progress to complete the test when they’ve passed the questions in that group. This enables a student to polish up on areas where they are weak in order to progress. Adaptive Assignments can be created with any rules you wish and are a great way to gamify your student’s assessment and revision.
Building Problem-Solving Skills in STEM with Adaptive Questions
With Möbius you can also craft revision tests with “Adaptive Questions.” This feature allows you to set up questions with different rules. For example, you can set up questions so that if the student is wrong, they aren’t shown the correct answer. Instead, the problem is broken into smaller steps, and the student must answer the sub-steps. This feature allows the student to engage with the material while receiving help through guided steps and hints. These hints help them understand the overall process for solving the problem they initially got wrong. This means they’re focusing on their weak areas, which is exactly what we want them to do.
If you’re not already implementing some of these ideas in Möbius, why not give it a go? Not sure where to get started? Our friendly and knowledgeable support team are always here to help. Reach out to us here!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lachlan Swain has a Master’s Degree in Theoretical Physics and has been supporting the STEM academic space for over a decade since completing his studies. First in hardware, helping labs with experimental and industrial equipment. And now in software, where he is currently the Team lead for Implementation and Support of Möbius at DigitalEd.