Call me a 21st century teacher, I woke up this morning, grabbed my mobile, checked emails and read educational writings (articles). Then an infographic that I got from @isteconnects aroused me to start writing (and pushed me to make a quick research).
STEM has been arousing me lately, not only because it’s new (for me) and need further discussion about this topic but also the fact that it is created (maybe) to answer the fact of declining number of students choosing science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
So this is my response as a newbie of STEM. I moved backward and tried to understand first what really happen is. Aren’t we wondering why the declining happen? I am, there should be “a message” behind of it. Let’s admit, maybe it’s because those subjects aren’t interesting enough. Most of people (including me) put such as “boring”, “difficult”, “complicated” label on those subjects. The fact that I’m academically an engineer doesn’t change me to give those labels. Bet the students feel the same just exactly like me.
Check the TED talks about what will future jobs look like by Andrew McAfee. The future of jobs will be in the circle of STEM and CREATIVITY. It looks cool for me and I believe the facts of future will be even cooler. And then why it’s not that cool for our students so they refuse taking those majors? Seems it’s our failure to send the message of how great the possibilities of those majors. Maybe we already kill their creativity about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, so they can’t see the future of them in those subjects. We are Prof. Gregory Larkin (The Mirror Has Two Faces) of this 21st century.
So, for me STEM is more than an instant solution to close the gap between supply and demand of the future workers. STEM for me is a license to kill the uncreative way of teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Let’s change those majors into something fun and full of creativity for the goodness of our students’ future.
So this is my response as a newbie of STEM. I moved backward and tried to understand first what really happen is. Aren’t we wondering why the declining happen? I am, there should be “a message” behind of it. Let’s admit, maybe it’s because those subjects aren’t interesting enough. Most of people (including me) put such as “boring”, “difficult”, “complicated” label on those subjects. The fact that I’m academically an engineer doesn’t change me to give those labels. Bet the students feel the same just exactly like me.
Check the TED talks about what will future jobs look like by Andrew McAfee. The future of jobs will be in the circle of STEM and CREATIVITY. It looks cool for me and I believe the facts of future will be even cooler. And then why it’s not that cool for our students so they refuse taking those majors? Seems it’s our failure to send the message of how great the possibilities of those majors. Maybe we already kill their creativity about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, so they can’t see the future of them in those subjects. We are Prof. Gregory Larkin (The Mirror Has Two Faces) of this 21st century.
So, for me STEM is more than an instant solution to close the gap between supply and demand of the future workers. STEM for me is a license to kill the uncreative way of teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Let’s change those majors into something fun and full of creativity for the goodness of our students’ future.