Webinar-Based Capacity Building for Integrated STEM: Pre-Service Teachers' Engineering Design Process (EDP) Oriented Lessons

The Philippine Department of Education emphasizes the engineering design process (EDP) as a pedagogical approach for developing problem solvers and innovators, yet Filipino learners remain among the lowest performers in science internationally. Engineering design is widely regarded as the central integrator of integrated STEM instruction, yet its integration is hardest in the life sciences, where abstract, submicroscopic phenomena and dependence on technologies unavailable in ordinary classrooms constrain what teachers can design. This study examined a webinar-based capacity building intervention preparing pre-service science teachers to develop EDP-oriented lesson plans and activities for Cell and Molecular Biology. Delivered as a one-month, three-session synchronous webinar series with digital scaffolds such as editable lesson templates, annotated exemplars, and shared resources, the intervention was evaluated using a mixed-method design with 24 third-year pre-service science teachers. Lesson plan evaluations improved from "Moderately Evident" (M = 4.01) to "Highly Evident" (M = 4.68), a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). EDP-oriented activities were rated "Highly Evident" (M = 4.33) and demonstration teaching "Satisfactory" (M = 87.36). Four themes emerged: Value of EDP in STEM Education, Impact of the Webinar Series, Challenges in Implementing EDP, and Novel Experiences and Insights. Notably, participants' most persistent constraint was technological: access to affordable, accessible materials for rendering cellular processes designable. Findings indicate that technology-mediated capacity building can prepare pre-service teachers for integrated STEM in the life sciences, but that teacher education must also equip them with low-cost tools for visualizing and modelling submicroscopic phenomena.