STEM education needs your help. And I need yours.
Peter Hinssen
International Keynote Speaker | LinkedIn Top Voice | Best-selling Author | London Business School Lecturer | Serial Entrepreneur | nexxworks Co-Founder
Tomorrow I will be flying from San Francisco to London, with British Airways. Nothing unusual there. But it's not a regular flight. BA has taken one of their planes, is filling it with 100 thought leaders, and letting them brainstorm in the sky during the 11 hour flight from San Francisco to London. And by the time we land in the British capitol, we better have figured out a great idea. On STEM.
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The FourLetterWord that is crucial to fuel the world of technology, that is vital to keep society going forward, but that is incredibly difficult to get young people excited about.
There just aren't enough kids who choose STEM as a basis for their education. But it's not the same everywhere. In some places in the world, like the United States, there is a shortage of talent to fill the ever-increasing number of STEM job opportunities that are being created every year. But in other places, like Africa or India, there are more brilliant minds than job opportunities. It's a global misalignment of talent.
That's what this flight is all about. It's called 'UnGrounded', and its a collective 'brainstorm in the sky'. Because STEM matters. It's no longer the domain of just laboratories, research institutes, or high-tech startups. Today STEM skills are necessary in all kinds of industries. The 'New Normal' is the term that I've coined to describe what happens when technology becomes a 'normality', when 'digital' isn't special any longer, but just normal. But because technology stops being 'special', it doesn't mean that we don't need STEM skills anymore. On the contrary, we will need more than ever before.
But the slowest part of society today seems to have become the education system. While STEM has been infiltrating and integrating into our everyday, traditional education still hasn't caught up. STEM is still siloed, still singular, still stereotyped as a pathway for geeky geniuses alone. Although I'm a huge fan of 'The Big Bang Theory', and it certainly has introduced some nerdy slang into mainstream vocabulary, I'm not really sure if Sheldon and his friends have really helped to make STEM more attractive. Today, only 8% of college freshman in the US graduate with a STEM degree, yet every industry needs a STEM in the New Normal.
So I'll be curious what we can come up with at 30,000 feet, flying the 5,000 miles to London. But I would like to ask you to help. Before we take off, can you give your input and ideas on what it would take to integrate STEM in other disciplines, and how could we create new approaches to STEM education in the future ?
Any input is greatly appreciated, and I promise I'll post a long-form article on the outcome of the 'ungrounded' Brainstorm in the Sky.
Thanks,
Peter
Systems theorist - Discoverer of Universal Patterns
11yIt is a misunderstanding that we are dependent on STEM to make the world a better place. My advise is to have a look at Where Mathematics Comes written by George Lakoff. If you take the time you will see that we are making things very complicated by not understanding that Being Smart is not from the Brain but from the Body.
Well my thoughts are very simple STEM to me no matter how we have defined it is a collection of related disciplines, therefore if you Teach Science as the Special Subject 9and there are many specialties) then kids should understand the Technology, Engineering and Mathematics associated with that Science. If you teach Technology the Tool, then the Science, the Engineering and the mathematics associated with that Technology should be understood, you get the drift. In my mind these are four venn diagrams, wher the core discipline ids the central circle and the other three circles are positioned in a way that creates a relationships, in other words lets show the integration of these areas, because they are closely coupled!
Past ISA BELGIUM president, member of the BOARD of ISA EMEA District 12 at ISA Belgium International Society of Automation
11yIt's indeed important. I remember 35 years ago when I started to study engineering and sciences at University Ghent that we started with 500 engineers. We finished with more than 250. A number of years ago they started with a few hundred, without a 10 day entrance examination like in "the good old days". 35 years ago we had a few female students, today it"s about the samen. I studied in the secondary school Latin and Greek, so I had to pay with an extra year before the university only mathematics, physics and Chemistry (preparatory year St.Amandus Ghent). But I didn't regret at all, although I didn't was the primus perpetuus, I was gratefull that I could learn this and that I could combine the old renaissance education with ancient Greek and Latin, with the up to date study of engineering, electronics, science and ICT. Of course I had to study many years longer and even today I enjoy it. But I'm happy to do so and I recommend everybody to learn some or more science. Today with the incredible speed of evolution of science, technology, engineering and maths you need to be in this world to be a renaissance person and to remain up to date. It's never old fashioned to be curious. Girls and Women too, participate to make yourselves indispensable, you allready are, but could become it even more. Be in the future, be the future. Wim
Quantum, Aerospace, Innovation, Tech Diplomacy
11yIts easy, be like Macintosh and make STEM sexy, very sexy...
Nursing Manager at Latrobe Regional Hospital
11yDo not separate the language (STEM) from everyday life. Live it, apply in homes and workplaces. Make it the 'norm' and it will become so.