Designing a Holistic Digital Fabrication Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Elementary School Learners

This paper describes a pilot design process for STEM education, going beyond the traditional STEM focus to incorporate digital fabrication, disciplinary and transversal skills, project-based learning pedagogy, an Understanding by Design curriculum development process, and cross-school capstone approach for elementary school students. The approach provides a holistic, integrated approach to STEM education, incorporating communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, all essential for success in the 21st century.

In 2022 a Polish educational non-profit organization, The Holistic Think Tank (HTT), set out to discover what should be taught in K-12 schools, and to design interdisciplinary curricula to address those needs. The global discovery process led to the creation of 10 competency categories that HTT believed should lay the foundations for curriculum design, grounded by humanistic and transversal skill development, in combination with disciplinary learning. Fab Foundation was one of three organizations chosen to develop this interdisciplinary course.

The authors lay out the pedagogy, process and implementation approach to holistic, 21st century, integrated curriculum design for K-6 learners, providing guidance and a framework for teachers to design capstones. Overall, this paper offers a comprehensive and innovative way of teaching STEM that prepares students for the modern workforce and promotes lifelong learning.