Project-based STEM learning through a socially relevant challenge: cognitive and affective outcomes of a sustainable construction project in secondary education

Abstract

This study examined cognitive and affective outcomes observed following an interdisciplinary project-based STEM intervention framed by a socially relevant humanitarian challenge. Students designed and built scale Superadobe shelter prototypes while applying knowledge of materials, measurement, proportional reasoning, and technical decision-making. Cognitive analyses used 78 complete pretest–posttest pairs from two ordinary-classroom analytical groups (MG1, n  = 29; MG2, n  = 30) and a Curricular Diversification group (CDG, n  = 19). Affective results were analysed descriptively at the item level for students in the ordinary classrooms and in the CDG. Difference scores did not depart significantly from normality, and paired-samples t-tests with Holm correction showed higher posttest cognitive scores in all three groups (all adjusted p  < .001; Cohen's dz = 0.93–1.62). Descriptive affective patterns included higher motivation, confidence, and positive evaluations of teamwork, together with lower reported frustration and concern. Open-ended self-assessments provided limited exploratory context for these patterns. Because there was no non-intervention control group and the affective instruments differed across educational settings, the findings are interpreted as within-group changes associated with the study period rather than as causal or cross-group evidence of inclusion.