Web-Based Engineering Design Activity in Biology: An Assessment on the Demonstration of Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Senior High School (SHS) STEM curriculum in the Philippines is on its infancy stages which lacks technology-related and engineering-oriented courses. Along with the challenges in education sector brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and ineffective teaching of 21st century higher-order thinking skills in a Philippine setting, this study aims to utilize an engineering design activity to introduce engineering principles using technological tools and assess the presence or absence of higher-order thinking skills in the design solutions using an engineering design rubric. A design activity was developed by the researcher. The average and total scores of each group as evaluated by the subject teacher, students and researcher using the engineering design rubric to measure the demonstration of higher-order thinking skills in the outputs were analyzed. Based on the components assessed, problem-solving skills and critical thinking were demonstrated on the design solutions at competent and sophisticated level of performance. This shows that incorporating collaborative engineering design activities in an online setting allow the students to exhibit higher-order thinking skills.