Five Years of Construction Kits in Primary Schools - Evaluating the Current State of a Project to Facilitate Technology Education

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo

In March 2018, metal construction kits were distributed to elementary schools in Rhineland-Palatinate under the “Technikkiste” program to promote STEM education, followed by expansion sets in 2018. An evaluation study in 2023 examined current usage and teachers’ views on related in-service training. Invitations were sent to 921 schools for an online survey; 69 responses were received. Findings show limited awareness and classroom use, with nonuse often attributed to missing or insufficient kits and indicating weaker-than-expected project impact.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

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Five Years of Construction Kits in Primary Schools: Evaluating the Current State of a Project to Facilitate Technology Education Martin Fislake, University of Koblenz, Germany Jana Schumacher, University of Koblenz, Germany Abstract In March 2018, metal construction kits were distributed to all elementary schools in RhinelandPalatinate as part of the project called "Technikkiste" [translation from German: technology box] to promote STEM education. At the end of the year 2018, three more expansion sets followed. So far, no requests have been made to schools, even after five years of the project's start as to how and whether they use this material. Therefore, an evaluation study was carried out in 2023, which was intended to find out the current usage behaviour with the kits as well as to get an impression of the teachers regarding the in-service training that took place as part of the project. For that 921 elementary schools were asked to participate in an online survey. 69 answered the questionnaire some more gave informal feedback. The results from the survey already show that only about 70% of the responders are even aware of the metal construction kits. Around 30% stated, that they were not familiar with the metal construction kits. In addition, only about 43% of the participants indicated that the kits have ever been used in the classroom at their school. One of the main reasons why they do not use the constructions kits is that the school has allegedly not received a kit or has too few for classroom use. This brief excerpt from the survey results already shows that the promotion project is not showing the success that the Ministry of Education had hoped for. Keywords Construction kits, Primary schools Introduction Against the lack of technology education in schools and the resulting consequences, projects are occasionally initiated to combat these resulting consequences (VDMA, 2019), which at least give the impression that education policy wants to change this. So this is was what was done by the Ministry of Education of the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. With the aim of stimulating more interest in STEM topics at elementary schools it initiated a support program named "Technikkiste". It was based on the findings from socialization research, according to which construction kits and other technical toys were often among the decisive motives for a technophile career and subject choices in previous generations (acatech, 2009) . However, despite the associated financial and logistical effort and individual accompanying measures such as further in-service training, no evaluation has taken place even five years after the start of the project. But, because such an evaluation study can provide a wide range of insights and consequences for teacher training, everyday school life and future support programs, this study was intended to investigate whether and, if so, how the metal construction kits are still being used in schools. Consequently, questions arose as to what has become of the metal construction kits in the meantime and how teachers reflect on them? Specifically, the aim is to find out whether the construction kits are still being used and, if so, to what extent and in what settings? Another aim was to find out whether all schools have received these kits at all and how satisfied the teachers are with the materials and the training opportunities. In 2018, the Ministry of Education in Rhineland-Palatinate launched the "Technikkiste" project to promote STEM education in a classical way. For this purpose, a metal construction kit (see Figure 2) was sent to each elementary school together with prepared didactic recommendations for use and one more kit if at least one teacher participated in an in-service training (Tschiedel, 2023) . A total of 355 teachers decided to participate in this in-service training. Five years later, the question arose: how are these boxes being used today and wh

FAQs

What were the main results regarding awareness and classroom use of the kits?

About 70% of respondents were aware of the metal construction kits, while around 30% reported unfamiliarity. Only about 43% indicated the kits had ever been used in their classroom, and a key reason for nonuse was reportedly that schools received no kit or too few for classroom use.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo