The Institute for Innovative Learning is an academic institution established to advance and cultivate learning among Thai people, with a particular emphasis on Science, Mathematics, and Technology. The institute's primary goal is to transform Thai society into a learning society where learners acquire knowledge, retain it for an extended period, develop creativity, and communicate effectively. Therefore, a crucial objective of the institute is to establish excellence in academic services by promoting and developing the learning process for learners of all levels. This is achieved through a range of activities, including training, practical seminars, both theoretical and practical, for educational personnel, including students and teachers, from elementary school to higher education

In order to support the aforementioned goals and fulfill the mission of the institution, the "STEM & Robotics Camp Practical Training Program" was developed to enhance the skills of teachers and learners in the 21st century in the area of coding. The program focuses on addressing the problems of the target group of the institution, namely students and teacher educators such as

1. To address the problem of limited access to coding learning materials due to their high cost. Consequence teaching coding in classrooms nowadays thus often relies on simulation, which only demonstrates computer-generated results. This approach has led to a lack of creativity and innovation skills among students, hindering their ability to use critical thinking to develop inventions and creations, and
2. To develop coding teaching and learning processes for teachers and school personnel is still limited due to its novelty, resulting in a scarcity of resources available for enhancing coding skills at the school level.

Therefore, the main objective of the "STEM & ROBOTICS CAMP" project is to develop the skills of 21^st-century teachers and students in coding through a 3 Dimensions working process, including:

• Coding workshop training for students and teachers
• Research and development of the coding teaching process for teachers, and
• Research and development of coding instructional materials

The concept and working principles of STEM & ROBOTICS CAMP aim to focus on:

1. The teaching materials used for the activities should be affordable and easily accessible

In order to facilitate easy access to the activities for teachers and students in various schools, we employ simple and readily available teaching materials that can be found in the general market and are inexpensive, such as cardboard boxes. These materials allow students to use them as media for creating robots or artwork.

2. The teaching and learning process should be accessible to students, which means it should be easy to understand and not boring

In terms of the training process, the team utilized the STEM Education teaching model to provide students with the opportunity to collaborate and create works together with their peers, promoting problem-solving skills and teamwork through challenging tasks that required creative solutions. These tasks were designed as a series of Missions, following the theory of Game-based Learning, to present obstacles for the students to overcome and gain knowledge and enjoyment simultaneously.

3. Accessibility of learners

Over the past three years, STEM & Robotics Camp activities have been organized for both teachers and students, both in-school and home-schooled, throughout Thailand, with provinces such as Bangkok, Central and suburban regions, Northern provinces such as Phrae, Northeastern provinces such as Surin, Yasothon, and Ubon Ratchathani, Eastern region such as Rayong, Southern provinces such as Yala, Surat Thani, etc. in order to disseminate coding knowledge to all schools and regions of Thailand (Figure 1).

Figure 1 The provinces of the schools where STEM and Robotics Camp have previously conducted activities.

4. The sustainable development of teachers and educators

In order to promote sustainable development in coding skills for Thai students, STEM & Robotics Camp has expanded its operations to the teaching sector by partnering with schools, district education offices, and private organizations to conduct research and develop coding teaching methods. The goal is to develop new coding teaching models and promote teachers to apply these new teaching methods and activities that they learned from the training to teach and transfer to their students in the classroom through coaching. Schools that have already implemented this program include Plukjit School in Bangkok, Pattana Wittaya School in Pathum Thani, Sirinthorn College in Nakhon Pathom, and 35 schools under the jurisdiction of the district education office in Suphanburi, as well as Lardplakao School in Bangkok. Moreover, Most recently, in June 2023, STEM & Robotics Camp also would collaborated with the private sector to conduct research and develop a coding curriculum for the academic year 2024, targeting students in grades 10-12 at Lad Pla Khao School in Bangkok as well.

5. The nationwide expansion

In addition, to support and promote opportunities for students to develop coding skills nationwide, most recently in 2023, we also collaborated with INT, a state-owned enterprise, and various private sector organizations to organize the "MU War of STEM 2023: Education Robotics Challenge" competition as a platform to promote learning and demonstrate coding abilities for students throughout Thailand. The competition aims to ignite creativity, generate a network of robotics competitions across the country, and facilitate sustainable learning for future generations. (See Figure 2)

Figure 2 MU War of STEM 2023, a skill-building competition for educational STEM robotics.

Moreover, to reduce the production cost of educational materials, imported printed circuit boards have been reduced. This is aimed at enabling students to have greater access to coding learning materials. In another aspect, the team has undertaken a project to design and develop a new type of circuit board (Figure 3), which has been supported financially for design and development by the Institute of Technology and Innovation Management, Mahidol University (iNT). In the future, we will have our own brand of affordable coding learning products under the Mahidol University brand. These products will be accessible to the general public and can be widely distributed throughout the country. This will help reduce educational disparities and promote the development of STEM individuals in our country for a better future.

Figure 3 Newly Developed Type of Circuit Board.

Furthermore, in addition to the aforementioned efforts to develop and disseminate knowledge on coding through the aforementioned three dimensions, STEM & ROBOTICS CAMP has also engaged in various publicity activities to promote greater awareness and understanding of the work being done. These activities have been carried out through various media outlets, including the STEM & ROBOTICS CAMP Page (Figure 4) and various print media (Figure 5).

Figure 4 STEM and Robotics Camp Page.

Figure 5 Examples of content in various print media.

Source: https://www.nstda.or.th/sci2pub/stem-homeschool/

Examples of activity/work organization in different dimensions

1. An example of workshop for high school students, grades 1-6, at Kana Ratbamrung School, Yala, was conducted through a 2-day activity program. The first day involved a science project activity on coding to solve problems in the context of SMART Health and City, while the second day was a Robot War competition using Game-based Learning approach (see Figure 6). 

Figure 6 Practical training activity example for students of grades 1-6 at Kana Ratbamrung School, Yala.

2. An example of workshop for students, grades 1-6, was participating in the Thai Science Camp project, 14th edition, with the National Science Museum (NSM) organization. The camping was conducted in the context of developing equipment to aid persons with disabilities and the physically challenged (Image 7).

Figure 7 workshop activity example for students in grades 1-6, who participated in the Thai Science Camp project 14, organized by the National Science Museum (NSM) in the context of developing devices to assist people with disabilities and physically challenged.

3. Example of workshop for homeschooled students, Robot War competition activity (Figure 8).

Figure 8 Workshop activity example for home school students - Robot War competition using Game-based Learning approach.

4. Example of research and development of coding teaching process for teachers at Plukjit School, Bangkok, under the context of SMART Garden, through creative problem-solving activities with 3 bases: soil base problem, water base problem, and air base problem. The training activities are divided into 3 phases: the first phase is to train teachers in teaching coding process (Figure 9); the second phase is coaching teachers to apply the knowledge in creating their own coding teaching plans for their students, and the third phase is for teachers to apply the knowledge gained from the first two stages to organize a coding camp for students (Figure 10).

Figure 9 Research and Development Activities on Teaching Coding for Teachers of Plukjit School, Bangkok, under the SMART Garden Context, Phase 1 - Training Teachers on Teaching Coding Process.

Figure 10 Research and Development Activities on Teaching Coding for Teachers of Plukjit School, Bangkok, under the SMART Garden Context, Phase 3 - Teachers Apply the Knowledge Acquired from Phases 1 and 2 to Organize a Coding Camp for Students.

5. An Example of Research and Development Activities for Teaching Coding to Teachers in Collaboration with the Provincial Education Area Office of Suphanburi Province for 35 Schools, Phase 1 - Training for Coding Teaching Process for Teachers. On the first day, it was a Science Project activity, Coding to solve problems under the SMART City context, and on the second day, it was a Robot War competition using Game-based Learning (Image 11). During phase 2, coaching was provided to teachers to apply their knowledge in creating their own coding lesson plans for their students. In phase 3, teachers applied the knowledge acquired from phases 1 and 2 to organize a coding camp for their students. These phase 2 and 3 will be carried out in the third quarter of the year 2023.

Figure 11 Research and development activities on coding instruction for teachers in collaboration with the Educational Area Office of Suphanburi Province, involving a group of teachers from 35 schools in Suphanburi province. Phase 1 - Training for Coding Teaching Process for Teachers.

6. Example of a training program for teachers conducted in collaboration with the company Amphan on the topic "How to teach STEM Coding with fun" (Figure 12) for teachers and individuals interested in coding education across the country.

Figure 12 Collaborating with Amphan company live on the topic of “How to teach STEM Coding with fun” for teachers and enthusiasts in coding throughout the country.

7. Example of a training session with Cytrons Thailand on the topic of "micro:bit training" (Figure 13), open to the general public interested in the field of coding throughout the country.

Figure 13 Collaborating with Cytrons Thailand, a live 'mico:bit training' session was conducted to provide knowledge on coding to the general public interested in coding-related work nationwide.

Examples of promotional materials for the STEM & Robotics Camp from its inception in 2021 until the present

Figure 14 Example of STEM & ROBOTICS CAMP promotional media since its establishment in the year 2021 until the present.

The Project outcome^*

Figure 15 Skills developed by trainees through STEM & ROBOTICS CAMP activity.

Based on the survey of participant feedback towards the STEM & ROBOTICS CAMP activity (N = 918), it was found that the developed activities were able to enhance the top three skills among trainees, which were D5: Collaboration, Teamwork & Leadership (M = 4.59, SD = 1.23), D3: Creativity & Innovation (M = 4.52, SD = 1.23), and D6: Computing & ICT literacy (M = 4.52, SD = 1.23), respectively (Figure 15, Table 1).

Table 1: Participants' Perception of Their Skill Development through STEM & Robotics Camp Activity.

Figure 16 Pre- and post-activity levels of knowledge and confidence of the participants before and after workshop.

Table 2: Participants' Perceptions of Their Knowledge Level in micro:bit and Computer Programming Skills for Problem Solving.

^**Significance at 0.05

Table 3: Participants' self-confidence level towards their ability to think analytically and problem-solve.

^**Significance at 0.05

Table 4: Participants' self-confidence level in computer programming skills.

^**Significance at 0.05

Table 5: Participants' self-confidence level towards their ability to create projects using micro:bit.

^**Significance at 0.05

From Figure 16 and Tables 2-5, it was found that the participants had knowledge about micro:bit and computer programming for problem solving (L1) with a pre-training level of 3.77±0.02 and a post-training level of 4.01±0.06. They had confidence in their ability to analyze and solve problems (L2) with a pre-training level of 3.94±0.03 and a post-training level of 4.12±0.05. Before the training, they had confidence in computer programming (L3) at a level of 3.81±0.05, which increased to 3.98±0.06 after the training. Furthermore, they had confidence in their ability to create works using micro:bit (L4) with a pre-training level of 3.86±0.03 and a post-training level of 4.07±0.06, respectively.

The results demonstrate that the STEM&ROBOTICS CAMP activity significantly contributes to the development of knowledge among trainees in relation to micro:bit and computer programming for problem-solving (L1). Moreover, it enhances trainees' confidence in their analytical thinking abilities for problem-solving (L2), programming skills (L3), and confidence in their ability to create workpieces using microbit boards (L4) at a significant level of 0.05.

^* Note: The obtained values are specific data from certain target groups only.