Teaching Science and Technology
The global economy is now driven mostly by science and technology. Professionals in these fields are making technological breakthroughs that impact everything: scientists are making advances in health care that can eradicate some diseases; technology innovators are changing the way people work and communicate; engineers are improving the infrastructure that improving people lives etc. It is estimated that in the next ten years, jobs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) will grow by 27 percent, while non-STEM job are only expected to grow by 3.8 percent. Currently, there are many jobs created in STEM fields but NOT ENOUGH qualified workers to fill the available positions. There are 29 STEM positions available for every one qualified person. In contrast to non-STEM fields, there is one job available per 68 unemployed people. This is the evidence that a focus on STEM field is needed to reduce unemployment rate among young people in every country. To achieve economic growth, a focus on STEM education is essential.
However a European study found that many young people are NOT interested in STEM fields but prefer “Fashionable fields” such as music, acting, modeling, photography, film making, sports, and decoration etc. These attitudes are influenced by what they saw on TV, movies, Internet websites, and magazines that promote “Consumerism” on material things. An U.K educator wrote: “Many young people do not receive enough information and guidance about career planning so they believe in what they see in the news media such as magazines and TV shows. In these shows, nobody works but enjoy luxury things. It is the lack of reality that creates this confusion.” Today Europe has the highest unemployment among young people; many go to college but select Non-STEM fields. When asked, many young students expressed their desire to be “Famous.” A student said: “I want to create music and be famous rather than working 40 hours a week for a company.” Another college student explained: “I saw my parents worked hard all their lives but achieve nothing. They are neither rich nor famous but struggle with the cost of living. We do not want to be slaves like them by working for big companies. We want to do what we like and be famous.” An economist complained: “This is a disease among younger generation who grow up with movies and videogames. Their minds are occupied by famous movies starts and rock stars, a lifestyle images that are far from reality. Young people today do not read books but watch YouTube and downloaded movies, they do not like to think much but want something fast and simple. They prefer fast foods and instant noodles which are bad for their health. They want to get reward immediately just like in videogames with instant points. They have no patient and prefer to study something easy that allows them to enjoy life now and our colleges are full of them.”
As Europe focus STEM education mostly in college, the U.S approaches it differently by investing in teacher training starting from elementary to high school. An U.S. educator explained: “STEM education must start with the teachers because their dedication and encouragement can stir interests among students at early age. That is why we start with elementary and high school teachers because by the time students go to college, their minds are already made up on what they want. In his speech last year (2013), President Obama set out a goal to train 100,000 high school teachers in STEM fields over the next 10 years. Following his goal, the organization “100K in10” was founded to address the need for more high-quality STEM teachers. The organization works closely with industries and universities, to develop STEM training programs to make sure what they teach will be relevance to the future careers of students. Within a year, the “100Kin10” already trained over 12,000 high school teachers in STEM. (2014 data). However at the U.S. STEM Solutions Conference early this year, many academic leaders agreed that traditional approaches to science and math education using traditional lectures and tests with little attention to hands-on work, have not proved successful in training students for a future careers in STEM fields. These leaders agreed that the “Learning by Doing” method is more suitable for STEM fields.”
An educator explained: “You cannot encourage young students to like technology by lecturing to them, but if you bring in robots let them learn to program these robots at early age, you will have a lot of programmers in the future. You cannot teach young children to like science if they do not involve in science projects and discover many things on their own. By let them watch a lot of scientific short films about nature then have class discussions and you will be surprised at how much they learn at early age and you can encourage them to study science such as medical, healthcare, biology etc. by the time they go to college. Today there is so many rich materials on the Internet from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) or short tutorials from Khan's academy website that can be used to supplement our teaching.”
If the 21st century is the beginning of the “Knowledge Age” then having more young students to explore these rich STEM materials should be the first step toward the development of the knowledge society.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
