Cultivating STEM Interest in High School Students through Computer-assisted COVID-19 Pandemic Awareness Course

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students were sidetracked by the shift in the educational process, primarily in the field of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education. Teachers were also besieged to find sustainable teaching solutions. During this chaos, many were subjected to various rumors and misinformation about the pandemic. Hence, we aimed to design a 3 week long computer-assisted STEM-based health awareness course. The course was designed and delivered to twenty high school students in various public schools in Qatar. The course creators utilized various innovative computer-based educational tools to involve and motivate students. In addition, students attended several synchronous and asynchronous sessions with experts in different fields to gain a better awareness of the crisis. A feedback mechanism was also operated to assess the effectiveness of the course delivery. The results revealed a 100% retention rate. The student questionnaire survey result showed higher post-test scores on pandemic awareness. A SWOT analysis depicted the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the executed course. Thereby, we successfully investigated the effectiveness of the STEM-integrated pedagogical approach through the learning outcomes of the student’s awareness of the course.