Integrated STEAM Approach in Outdoor Trails with Elementary School Pre-Service Teachers

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was impossible to carry out on-campus teaching and examinations as planned for the first-year elementary school Bachelor's degree teacher training courses during the summer term of 2019/2020. Therefore, we moved our on-campus STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) related courses to schooling at home. For their course examination, students designed outdoor trails in groups with the educational technology MathCityMap based on an integrated STEAM approach. Hence, they combined STEAM with real-world situations (e.g., monuments, marketplaces, playgrounds). The tasks within the trails required the use of technologies such as augmented reality (AR), digital modelling (e.g., GeoGebra 3D Graphing Calculator), and GPS. Analogue measuring tools (e.g., triangle ruler) were also used in the task designs. We collected data from 21 trails with 259 tasks from 49 pre-service teachers to analyse the effects on professional growth in STEAM education. Through hierarchical cluster analysis we identified three different clusters with patterns regarding STEAM in outdoor trails. This paper will describe a pedagogical framework for the integrated STEAM approach to designing and evaluating outdoor trails. Furthermore, we will explain patterns pre-service teachers developed during this professional development.