2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

STEM education and the spiral curriculum: Reinventing the wheel as a work in progress

Presented at Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Technical Session 15: Interdisciplinary and Integrated Approaches to STEM Learning

This paper reports on a lesson sequence based on circles and rotation as a theme to build on prior knowledge and introduce more advanced concepts in primary school settings. Initial findings suggest that the affordances of circles and rotation can provide a logical and familiar context to introduce more complex STEM concepts such as ratios, exponents and even nanotechnology. The evolving lesson sequences are part of a work in progress in a longitudinal STEM integration project where STEM resources are published in draft form on an open-access website (https://silo.edu.au/). Our research is based on Bruner’s spiral curriculum which provides a rationale for the early introduction of STEM concepts to prepare our students for the increasingly technological world in which we live. The lessons in this paper have been implemented in Australian primary classrooms, and continued research will allow the extension of this work to Ontario primary classrooms as well, following a baseline comparison of existing content.

Authors

Solina Quinton University of Waterloo [biography]

Solina Quinton is an environmental engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo with a passion for education. Her experience in the field of engineering education began during her time in Australia working on The SILO Project, an integrative STEM education resource for primary students. Solina has continued this work to focus on the Ontario curriculum, and her goal is to continue to connect with and further inspire students’ interest in STEM learning.
Dr. Rania Al-Hammoud P.Eng. MpowerU Training & Consultancy Inc. [biography]

Rania Al-Hammoud is an associate professor teaching stream and the current associate chair of undergraduate studies at the civil & environmental engineering department at university of waterloo. Dr. Al-Hammoud has a civil engineering background with research focusing on materials and the rehabilitation of reinforced concrete structures. She also has passion for engineering education and has published widely in this area. She cares about the success and well-being of her students, thus always being creative with the teaching methods in the classroom. Outside the classroom, she is an active person, with the following hobbies: hiking, biking and dancing.
Dr. Brendan Jacobs http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-1848-9356 The University of New England [biography]

Brendan Jacobs is an Associate Professor and Head of Department (STEM Education) at the University of New England, Australia. His research interests include STEM education, explanatory animation creation, conceptual consolidation theory, and provisional multimodal research.
Sogra Fathima University of Waterloo

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