Up until now, there have been several different viewpoints on creativity in general and creativity in the science field in particular. Furthermore, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education is increasingly successful and widespread around the world; however, few studies on its impact on scientific creativity exist. As a result, research on the influence of STEAM-based curriculum on students’ scientific creativity is critical. Elementary school students were chosen to be investigated in this research, and the main topic of the STEAM-based curriculum was about a house-shaped money-saving tube with the concept of lock science, which was developed and created by the authors’ team. This research produced two phases of courses: Lock Science Courses (2 weeks) and STEAM-based courses (2 weeks). In this study, sixty-six elementary students from two separate courses were divided into two groups: control and experimental. This research used a counterbalanced design. The control group took Lock Science Courses first and then STEAM-based courses, while the experimental group did the opposite. As a pretest and posttest, students in both groups were asked to complete the “scientific creativity test” (Cronbach’s α, 0.87). The findings of the paired t-test study indicate that both the control and experimental groups have shown significant improvement in their scientific creativity. However, only the fluency and flexibility components of scientific creativity (consisting of fluency, flexibility, and originality) showed considerable development, whereas the originality component remained unchanged. This research also found that after engaging in a STEAM-based curriculum, there was no substantial difference in scientific creativity between males and females. Further discussion is provided.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) -based curriculum on junior high school students’ scientific creativity. The main topic of the STEAM-based curriculum in this study is an ancient mechanical clock that was designed and produced by the authors’ team. Further, the main concept of the ancient mechanical clock is about a gear wheel. Hence, this study designed two stages of courses which were gear wheel science courses (2 weeks) and STEAM-based courses (2 weeks). A total of 62 junior high school students from two different courses participated in this study and were divided into a control group and an experimental group. This study adopted a counterbalance design. The control group joined gear wheel science courses first and joined STEAM-based courses second. In contrast, the experimental group joined STEAM-based courses first. Both groups were asked to complete a pre-test, a middle-test, and a post-test by completing the “Scientific Creativity Test (Cronbach’s α 0.87)”. The results from paired t-test analyses showed that control group students did not show significant differences in scientific creativity before and after joining the gear wheel science courses, but they got significantly higher scores after joining STEAM-based courses than before. On the other hand, the experimental group students got higher scores in scientific creativity after joining STEAM-based courses than before, and persisted in getting higher scores after joining the gear wheel courses than before. Furthermore, the results implied that the STEAM-based courses might help students maintain or continue their scientific creativity. Further discussion is provided.

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