How apt was Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, when he said:
“You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”
And that’s exactly what Myra Jones, a hands-on mother and an R&D engineer at a leading MNC in Houston, had to say about learning from mistakes.
Myra is no stranger to building circuits and fiddling with electronics kits. As a kid she loved her Radio Shack 100 experiments kit and she wants to inculcate the same kind of interest in her children.
While she focuses on hands-on learning for them, she is at the same time dissatisfied with the ready-made educational fancy kits that are flooding the markets today. She is unhappy with the fact that these modules do not require any real effort, thus restricting the hands-on learning that her children require.
“There is minimal learning when you just have to snap the components right. I can’t even teach my children the basics with these kits because they don’t allow any opportunity of making mistakes. How will they learn if they are not given the opportunity to make errors?” complained Myra.
The reason why Myra is keen on hands-on learning is because she wants her children to pursue engineering just like her. “I have my reservations about those kits because I get no value for money. My kids are not learning anything new,” she said.
Until then she had not laid her hands on Mand Labs KIT-1. When we finally gave her to experiment with KIT-1, she had a volley of questions for us: “Will my children get to learn hands-on and will they be able to do all the projects on their own? What will they learn out of this? And what is the future?”
As the brother-sister duo unboxed KIT-1, it was sheer delight to see them toil it out. They were juggling between components, connections, stripping off shorter jumper wires, but once they got their first project right, their faces lit up as they beeped their buzzer together.
Of course, it was no cakewalk for them, but they were beaming at the end of it all. “This is exactly what I was looking for to teach my children. They made a few errors by not doing the right connections on the breadboard. So, they used the video given in the kit to understand how a breadboard works. It really helped. And their persistence paid.”
“I can recall the exact moment in my head. My daughter literally started jumping when she completed her first circuit and made her first light. She said, mommy, I made my own christmas light! I was proud,” Myra gushed.
And KIT-1 gives children the perfect opportunity to learn by doing, as American billionaire, Alex Spanos, puts it:
“The best way to learn is by doing... and getting your hands dirty.”
But our question here is how many of us are like Myra who don’t allow the fear of failure to paralyze us? Did you know that Thomas Alva Edison had failed over 10,000 times while working on the light bulb? It was only through his mistakes that he finally succeeded.
When we try to build circuits, we often mess up, burn a few components, do short circuits; do wrong connections; forget about the polarities (positive and negative terminals) of components etc. That is the time when exceptional learning opportunities arise and one’s patience gets tested.
In the world of instant gratification, Mand Labs KIT-1 teaches kids the virtues of perseverance, hard work and not to give up. To help users troubleshoot, the kit comes with detailed and visual step-by-step building instructions and tips. What’s more? It’s replete with dedicated technical support wherein users can send pictures of their projects and get advice from engineers.
Research shows children should be given room to make mistakes and they need to be trusted. “Existing educational toys use prefabricated parts that connect only the right way and have fixed outcomes with limited learning. However, Mand Labs KIT-1 is designed to be more open, modular and learning focussed. Learners will be able to not only build projects but also understand the underlying theory and concepts through testing, observation and math,” says Gurpawan Mand, founder of Mand Labs.
“Doing raw electronics gives children the opportunity to understand the technology around them, and not get scared of it. Children should get the drive to become makers of technology not consumers of it. Most products we use are black-boxed and sealed. And we as consumers do not have access to their inner logic and components. So, we are unable to explore how they work and what they are made up of. With KIT-1, our mission is to decode technology and make it less technical,” elaborates Mr. Mand.
While her children were tinkering, Myra realized that KIT-1 is more than just a tool with limitless possibilities. It allows children to tinker, gain real-world perspective and learn through experience.
Post-experimenting with KIT-1, Myra listed down a few pointers that the other kits in the market couldn’t have taught her children:
“Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on?” American author, Peter McWilliams.
We often think we can avoid errors but they are an inevitable part of any scientific or entrepreneurial pursuit. Our errors actually allow us to become better and empower us to develop a much deeper level of understanding about our work. Errors teach us to be more resilient. American basketball player, John Wooden couldn’t have said better:
“If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.”
Speaking about her children’s experience with KIT-1, Myra said: “When they started fiddling with the components, it all seemed easy. Only when they actually started working on the projects they realized they required a lot of focus and patience. It almost took them 15 minutes to get used to stripping the wires using the cutter. There was a technique to it.”
“They learned through experience and tried their best to not give up and it worked. The step-by-step instructions are a real deal. They were detailed and easy to follow. This do-it-yourself (DIY) kit has everything in one place. I don’t need to look for components separately in the market. Yes, it is all-in-one- as advertised,” she added.
Myra’s experience substantiates Mand Labs’ design philosophy - “let kids mess up”. We couldn’t agree more with novelist James Joyce:
“A man's mistakes are his portals of discovery.”
In this new blog series we celebrate the most STEM-azing minds of the future, who are tomorrow’s visionaries of technology. Get to know these young minds up close and personal, as they share their dreams and what it takes to follow their passion and pursue their vision
Meet Daman Yang, a 17-year-old from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA, who is into robotics and has been dreaming of being a roboticist as early as he was 10. Let’s take a sneak peek of his journey so far as he walks us through what got him hooked into robotics.
April 30th, 2008, was the day when my eyes opened to the world of engineering. My dad took me to see Iron Man the day it hit theatres in Taiwan, and for the first time, I had a superhero within my realm of possibility. I had previously admired Spider-Man with his acrobatics and web-slinging, but I wasn't sure where to acquire radioactive spiders and I didn't know if they would be willing to bite me in the first place.
However, Tony Stark was a mere mortal, and his powers came from a real, tangible place: electrical and mechanical engineering, a hands-on approach, and an attitude of determination, conveniently backed by a multi-billion dollar fortune.
“Among the numerous disciplines of engineering, I love robotics the most because it brings together myriad skills. Critical thinking, design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and programming are all vital to being a roboticist, and I am eager to learn all there is to know in these fields.”
Others, such as Simone Giertz, William Osman, and the people at Boston Robotics, show me that robotics can be a lot of fun. Their videos of the frustrating but hilarious process of prototyping that leads to an amazing final result are inspiring and motivating me to create.
Prototyping is a process that I’ve come to love. Although the design may not work at first, troubleshooting and then solving those problems by building a better prototype will eventually lead to a working model and a feeling of immense gratification. Each new prototype, each new identified problem, and each new solution urges me onwards to create something better.
A facet of robotics that I particularly enjoy is automation, and how robots are able to create on their own. It has always fascinated me, as evidenced by hundreds of hours I’ve logged on Factorio. I believe that robots are the next step in making our lives easier. While robots are good at high-accuracy and repetitive tasks, humans have the ability to design and innovate.
What’s even cooler is that some AI systems are able to create designs that are completely revolutionary through machine learning. Through more work, I think that humans and robots can be working together side by side to further innovate, solve the world’s problems, and make it a better place.
"My love for robotics and hope for the future is my incentive to learn as much as I can to become a roboticist."
To take the first step in learning more about engineering and building robots, I joined a local FTC (First Tech Challenge) team in the summer of 2015, just before I went to study abroad in the States. I loved it at first sight, so I then joined the VEX robotics team at my school.
At the USA Science and Engineering Festival, Washington, DC, held in April 2018, I met Gurpawan Mand, the founder of Mand Labs. He was very enthusiastic in showing me the different devices he had made with the Mand Labs KIT-1. Mand Labs KIT-1. It made me realize that all the fancy gadgets used in everyday life consist of simple electrical components. It took away the hesitation of approaching electronics significantly, and made me want to delve deeper into learning about them as well as making my own.
Since my school doesn't offer much in the way of electrical engineering, I decided to purchase a Raspberry Pi, some wires, switches, LEDs, and a small breadboard online. I learned Java from my Advance Computer Science class, so Python wasn't particularly difficult to pick up. Since I purchased these components, many afternoons have been whiled away crouching over the parts and building simple circuits.
I then moved onto slightly more complicated (but still quite rudimentary) projects, such as building my own Twitter bot. It doesn't do much, other than send a tweet when I push the big blue button on my desk, but I treasure it nonetheless.
I later decided that soldering would be a useful skill, so I bought a cheap soldering kit. These humble components would provide me with hours of entertainment and acquiring new skills. Through some sparks and a near-miss with my dorm’s fire alarm, I've learned a lot in a relatively short amount of time.
I love robotics. I love the thrill of prototyping, the joys of wiring electrical circuits, the delight in programming, and the satisfaction of the final product. I have a great deal more learning ahead of me before I become a roboticist, but I think that electronics is definitely the right first step.”
Learning about electronics strips away the complexity surrounding machines and how they work, and I am able to think through the proper steps to create a working robot much more easily. Undoubtedly, there will be challenges on the road going forth, and I am eager to take them head-on. Electrical and mechanical engineering, a hands-on approach, and an attitude of determination. Billion dollar fortunes naturally follow.
Are you a student and have a story to tell that would inspire more children into STEM? We would love to hear about it. Do write to us at urmila@mandlabs.com
In December 2016, I purchased a Mand Labs kit for my niece, who was in middle school. When the kit arrived, I could not help but look inside. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. The box was compact, easy to care, and all the accompanying books and materials stored efficiently.
The electronics components were arranged precisely in individual compartments; the most frequently-used components consisted of a rich variety along with quantity. The books were printed on durable color paper. The steps for each lesson were photographed beautifully and clearly.
I instantly decided to get Mand Labs kit for my children, too. I ordered three: one for myself, one for my son and one for my daughter.
We started using the Mand Labs kit seriously earlier this year (2018). My daughter (10) decided to explore Ohm’s law for her science fair project, while my son (8) decided to learn about batteries for his. We started watching the accompanying online videos and the book 1 step-by-step projects to learn all about current, voltage and resistance, and how to measure them using the multimeter.
"Every time we read about a new concept, we carried out a related activity. For instance, when we learned about resistance we used the potentiometer. We wound the potentiometer and observed how the LED wired to it in a circuit changed the intensity: We could either make it brighter or dimmer."
The components, including the breadboard, are small but the children had no problem inserting the components when wiring the example circuits. For elementary schoolchildren like mine, it was sufficient to plot the results and observe the general dependencies between the key variables. Both science projects were a success.
"What was thrilling was that the children were excited to be doing something with their hands; both were excited to be tinkering with electric components and observing the results immediately: one may read all one wants about an LED’s wiring, but nothing comes close to leaving a lasting impression as seeing it lit when wired correctly, and not lit when wired the other way around."
As with all prototyping, even if one follows the instructions exactly, one inevitably misses something, and these moments are the most useful, because this is when one realizes that something was not understood well.
"At home, without tests or formal labs and teachers to answer to, one can rewind and try again. Stress-free failure is possibly the best way to learn. We had plenty of such moments."
For instance, when we were learning to measure current, we kept all wires in the circuit and, of course, measured nothing, that is until we re-read the relevant pages and realized we needed to connect the multimeter in series in the circuit.
Since the science fair projects we have used the kit’s components for various ad-hoc explorations. We observed how flowing current induces a magnetic field and acts on the needle of a compass. We observed how changing magnetic field induces current in a wire. We also built an electromagnet and are a step closer to exploring relays and logic gates.
"I built a small version of the Enigma machine to demonstrate the electric aspect of its inner workings. We are moving slowly but steadily and enjoying every step of the way."
"Mand Labs is a fantastic starter kit on any journey to learn about electricity and electronics. The fundamental concepts are covered really well both in the videos and in the books."
Elementary schoolchildren will need help with clearing the ends of wires, but not much else. There is no soldering. All projects, as needed, come with warnings, so it is sufficient to be just one step ahead and point out the warnings as needed.
There are plenty of components that even if you break a few while tinkering with them for the first time, there is plenty to continue with. Every Thursday the makers of Mand Labs send out a project to try, so if your inspiration dries out, it won’t stay so for long.
When we received Patricia’s mail asking us whether we could help her teenage son learn electronics in the easiest way possible, we didn’t expect a blog to stem from this query. What followed her query, were N number of similar questions in our inbox that came from parents, homeschool moms, educators and learners.
The email queries showed us what the grim reality was. Despite the ample resources available online, people are still grappling with finding the right content. It is really cumbersome to browse through 100s of pages on Google. It's all scattered, random and non-curated. Inconsistent content can leave anyone confused and intimidated.
People are robbed of the option of finding everything in one place as they have to order electronic components or parts from multiple channels. Gone are the days when we had the Radio Shack and we could rely on it for all our components and spares. Today we need to source them from multiple channels and pay huge shipping costs; compare the products as well as the pricing before we finally buy them, thus losing our precious time and energy in the process.
This is also the story of how the seeds of Mand Labs were sown. A few years ago, our founder, Gurpawan Mand, had ordered a fingerprint sensor from a popular website. When the shipment arrived, it had no documentation or manual to start with. The sensor that arrived was not working. After trying to figure out on his own, he contacted the customer support. That too failed him, as there was absolutely no response from the team. Frustrated with the service and also the product, he made up his mind to come up with a product that would have all the content, components and tools in one place, besides being supported with top-of-the-class technical support.
So, this blog is dedicated to Patricia and all the other moms and learners who took the time to mail us and find out how Mand Labs KIT-1 helped them in learning electronics in the most simplest and easiest of ways. This is also for all those who are looking out to glean information and tap the wisdom from the resources. Let’s walk you through:
There are ample resources online, but looking for what you exactly want can not only be tedious but also time consuming. Let’s be honest, we all love the luxury of having everything in one place rather than having to arrange for things bit by bit. Keeping that in mind, at Mand Labs, we came up with KIT-1, where you will not need to look outside the box, literally!
The ergonomically-designed workstation, which fetched Mand Labs the i-Design Award, 2015, comes bundled with all requisite hardware and electronic components required to build an array of 60+ projects. To be precise, it comes with 165 components and tools, a portable breadboard carry case that ensures you can carry your creations along with the compact box, enabling you to work in your own time and convenience. How perfect is that?
So, this do-it-yourself (DIY) kit for electrical science and electronics is not only your “go-to kit” when it comes to learning electronics in the easiest way possible, but also allows children to tinker with real-world electronic components and tools to build real-world projects from the comfort of anywhere you choose, without even bothering about the spares, components and resources.
A book is a device to ignite the imagination ― Alan Bennett
Books are probably the best resources that can help you in understanding and learning electronics from scratch. And our book, Electronic Series KIT-1, which is divided into two parts, is just perfect for you if you want to build circuits and learn electronics at the same time.
The book is an attempt to break the conventional paradigm and make electronics fun to learn, simple to understand and easy to relate to. It also endeavors to debunk the concept that technology is technical and electronics is difficult to learn. It is an amalgamation of both theoretical and practical learning.
With the content mapped to the standard physics curriculum, the book’s purpose is to help students develop a structured approach and help them in their problem solving skills, and shape their thought processes to look at things from a different perspective.
To help the reader understand better the book has schematics, which are explained and implemented step-by-step . It also has observations and reasoning behind the projects, including several activities like taking the multimeter and checking its readings or modifying the projects. The reasoning and inference of each project keep the lessons alive without letting you get bored. It also has Q-boxes and Do You Knows that contain a plethora of questions and interesting facts.
Book 1 covers the basic concepts of electricity, electrical and electronics in 10 chapters. It gives the reader an in-depth and comprehensive working knowledge of charge, voltage, current, resistors, Ohm’s law, variable resistors, including potentiometer, preset and LDR, series and parallel combinations, LEDs, buzzers, switches and capacitors. It also enables readers to build and analyze projects step-by-step.
Book 2 covers more advanced concepts of electronics in 8 different chapters. Each chapter gives the reader an in-depth and comprehensive working knowledge of topics covering relays, diodes, semiconductors, logic gates, zener diodes, DC motors, transistors, and signals.
Electronic Series KIT-1 gives an extensive knowledge for those who want to explore the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ and want a clearer and deeper understanding of the fundamentals of electricity and dive deep into the world of electronics.
If you are a beginner, watching YouTube tutorials and trying to extract as much information and knowledge as you can, it can be pretty exhausting. But what if you get all the resources you want from one place? At Mand Labs, we understand this need and that is why we have created all the additional resources that will come in handy when you are experimenting with all your projects. Well, we all love perks, don’t we?
To help you get started and further strengthen your skills repertoire, we have compiled all our content in a USB flash drive loaded with digital curriculum, including your lessons in high definition videos and step-by-step PDF guides that will empower you to self-learn at your own pace. The content in the USB flash drive, will help you to get started quickly and reduce your download time without depending on the internet connectivity.
Nothing can give you a better clarity and understanding than the interactive videos, replete with lectures, demonstrations and live assembly of projects. The videos help understand the concepts in a fun and interactive way by using animations, project modifications and discussing questions and concepts. It also helps the person reason behind the principle and test it.
But if you are someone who wants to get on to building projects instantly without much ado, you have our troubleshooting instructions or as we call it the step-by-step visual PDFs handy. The guide that is complete with circuit diagrams will help you assemble any circuit on the breadboard using the instructions in less than 30 minutes.
Even if you are a novice in electronics and have never tried your hand in building circuits, you can build your projects with our simple and easy-to-follow instructions. Did you know that our instructions have been tested on 15,000 users in live hands-on workshops?
And after all these resources, if you need any help, our dedicated technical support is just an email away. You can send pictures of your projects and get advice from our engineers.
Up until now if you have been ordering spares online or rushing to get your dose of tutorials from the YouTube videos, just remember that KIT-1 can basically help you save your time, effort and money. Whether you are a parent looking for a kit for your child to help him/her learn electronics from scratch; an educator about to start a robotics class in your school; or a homeschooler looking to teach physics and electronics, then KIT-1 is the right choice for you.
And if you want to add a cool functionality to your projects, KIT-1 is upgradeable to advanced modules that covers integrated circuits, sensors and programming. So, go on and open up a whole new world of imagination and building for you!
What could be the apparent reason for the current state of STEM education in the US? And how are we going to address the issue? Here, we look at some of the hurdles and how we can tackle them.
Sean Mathew bailed out of his physics degree from one of the top colleges in the US in his senior year. He had been the kind of student that most employers would love to hire. His scores were excellent and he had planned to be a theoretical physicist like his role model Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory. But as Sean sat in his major class of 2016, he realized, he couldn’t relate his class theories to real-life problem solving skills. And when he looked at the curriculum, he didn’t see any respite. He was completely disillusioned.
So Sean, a 23-year-old, switched to international relations, where he says “classes are a lot more interesting”. Of his five friends at the college, two of them have followed in his footsteps. While the other two, who are still pursuing their course, plan to do business after they complete their degree.
Sean and his friends’ experience shows how some of the best performing students are getting disillusioned by the way engineering or STEM subjects are being taught in schools and colleges, where there is more focus on theory rather than in hands-on learning.
Their stories are not isolated. There are many like them who are switching to non-STEM subjects citing the same reason. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2019 there will be a requirement of 1.9 million STEM educated professionals in the US, but roughly 40 percent of students, who intend to do a major in STEM, end up switching to other subjects.
"Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs." - Obama
During his tenure, Obama had pushed for STEM education and endorsed for more public-private partnerships, more career training at community colleges and for more American innovation. And now, carrying his predecessor’s legacy forward and recognizing the importance of STEM education in enhancing a new generation of American workers, President Donald Trump had recently signed a memorandum for STEM education funding.
It’s true that the educators, policy makers, politicians, businesses are waking up to the importance of STEM today, but we all know that our nation had always had a shortage of STEM workforce.
According to the third annual US News/Raytheon 2016 STEM Index, US continues to have a shortage of STEM professionals despite an increase in the number of STEM degrees. A Census Bureau report shows that about 74 percent of college graduates with STEM degrees are opting for non-STEM jobs starting from law to education and social work.
This is certainly a bad news for employers who want to fill STEM vacancies. According to the US Department of Commerce, STEM graduates are the most in demand and earn higher salaries than their non-STEM counterparts. The demand for STEM professionals is growing as the US economy has transitioned to a more focused technological-based economy from an industrial-dependent economy.
A study conducted by the National Math and Science Initiative indicates that only 36 percent of high school graduates are prepared to pursue a college-level science course. Another worrisome figure according to the Department of Education is that only 16 percent of high school seniors are keen on pursuing STEM careers.
Another unimpressive data released in 2015 by The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) had placed the US as the 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. There are even more reasons to worry as STEM jobs are being projected to increase 1.7 times faster than non-STEM jobs with top companies struggling to find professionals with the right skills to fill in the vacancies.
Based on a report from the US Patent and Trademark Office (1997-2015), it granted 3,030,080 patents to US entities, while the rest of the world was granted 2,709,771 patents. However, this trend is changing now with other countries leading the pack. This is a grave trend indicating the slowdown of science in the US.
So, what could be the apparent reason for the "crisis-like" state of STEM education in the US? How are we going to address the issue? Let’s look at how we can tackle this hurdle and “help give our American children a pathway to success in the workforce of tomorrow,” as Trump had said recently while granting a fund of $200 million a year to promote STEM.
“For our economy to thrive in the future, we need more young women, as well as young men, to have opportunities to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics and pursue careers in these areas.” - Former Chancellor of the University of California, Linda PB Katehi
Research shows that the earlier we tap on our children's potential and support their wonder about the world by initiating the basic foundation for STEM, the more successful they will be later in life. Studies also reveal that students exposed to STEM at an early age perform better in science and math
High-quality, early-learning environments also foster life-long interest in STEM, besides providing them with a structure to build upon their natural inclination to question, build and explore. These facts substantiate why STEM curriculum should be introduced in all elementary schools and for all students across the US.
Research confirms that children's brains are more receptive to learning logic and math between the ages of one and four. A study by the University of California, Irvine, has also proved that early math skills prove to be beneficial for later academic success. The study found that “early math concepts, such as knowledge of numbers and ordinality, were the most powerful predictors of later learning.
As we all know how important math and STEM competencies are for the country’s long-term economic growth, it is increasingly important to focus on STEM in early education. Children are the future of tomorrow’s workforce, so they need to be exposed early to be able to prepare and qualify to fill in the soaring STEM vacancies.
And the best possible way to shore up that pipeline is to connect government entities, non-profit organizations, businesses and schools into engaged networks dedicated in supporting STEM education. Children should also be exposed to real-world STEM workplaces that will ignite an interest, as they experience the opportunities and understand the intricacies involved in achieving them. There is also an urgent need for the US to compete with countries which are churning out a large number of students competent in STEM.
So, how do we imbibe an interest in the little minds? “Instead of attempting to fit STEM activities into existing blocks of learning, we should look at how we can deconstruct traditional content blocks and reconstruct meaningful experiences using innovative STEM practices,” says Nathan Lang, an education strategist with CDW-G.
Tristar Experience has recently refurbished a Lockheed L-1011 into a mobile classroom, where schoolchildren in Kansas will soon get to learn STEM hands-on inside the two-storey jumbo jet. This experience will disrupt conventional learning and spark an interest in children and inspire them to pursue STEM subjects in schools and colleges. This is an innovative way to lure children and pique their interest level, and will go a long way in engaging the little minds in inspiring them to actually look at STEM from a different perspective.
We need to think of such new and innovative ways to lure more children into learning STEM. Studies have found that being hands-on helps children get a better understanding of the subject or topic. It allows them to experiment and learn through their mistakes, besides grasping the gaps between theory and practice. Considered to be the best way to keep children engaged, hands-on activity also helps emulate real-life engineering design process and prevents students from getting bogged down by the topic.
As we know, STEM topics can be very complicated and difficult to understand for elementary students. This makes it all the more important to include activity-based, hands-on learning. Scientific information can be passed down through books and lectures, but when students are involved in hands-on learning, they learn things better and faster.
A meta-analysis research of 15 years on the advantages of hands-on learning, including 57 studies of 13,000 students in 1,000 classrooms, reveals that students in activity-based programs performed up to 20 percent higher than groups using traditional or textbook approaches.
It was also found that hands-on learning corresponds to a child’s natural curiosity and problem- solving skills. Learning with experiments expands a child’s curiosity and understanding of the subject. For instance, when children participate in science fairs or exhibitions or maker faires, they not only develop vital skills in science and math, but also improve on their confidence level and communication skills.
Research conducted by the University of Chicago reveals that students who are involved in hands-on experiments understand the concepts better and also score better than those who are not exposed to activity-based learning. The National Assessment of Educational progress has also indicated that students who indulge in hands-on learning activities weekly, fare better than their counterparts by over 70 percent of a grade level in math and 40 percent of a grade level in science.
It is therefore important to ditch the monotonous theory-based lectures and facilitate continued and creative ways by going the extra mile to inspire the next generation of scientists, innovators and makers. To fuel an interest and spark among children, we need parents and teachers to come together and play an equal role in encouraging children to explore and experiment without the fear of failing.
“One of the things that I’ve been focused on as President is how we create an all-hands-on-deck approach to science, technology, engineering, and math…We need to make this a priority to train an army of new teachers in these subject areas, and to make sure that all of us as a country are lifting up these subjects for the respect that they deserve.” - Obama
Research reveals that experienced and well-trained math and science teachers make a life-altering impact on students, who outperform students with less experienced teachers. How can we expect children to learn if teachers are not well-equipped to teach STEM subjects?
Experts suggest that for a better future of STEM education, we need well-trained and enthusiastic teachers who will be able to bring their first-hand know-how in mentoring children. Teachers should get professional development opportunities from time to time that will help catalyze their passion and talent for teaching STEM.
"There is a huge difference in learning arithmetic or mathematics from someone who understands it and loves to teach it compared to learning arithmetic and mathematics from someone who is afraid of it," says the first lady president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Susan Hockfield.
A survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) states that around 30 percent of physics and chemistry teachers in public high schools are not well qualified in their fields and have not earned a certificate to teach those subjects. Having qualified teachers with strong content knowledge in STEM subjects is crucial to our economy. That is why it is critically important to have dedicated veterans, especially with a STEM background and have qualified individuals in the classroom who can lend their experience and knowledge to the students.
It is also important to introduce an effective teaching system prior to integrating STEM learning into early childhood education. Educators should fully understand the ways young children absorb STEM concepts and accordingly come up with new and innovative ways to support and inspire children.
Only if the teachers are well trained they will be able to guide and try out pedagogical techniques to see what works best and what doesn’t; they will be able to make STEM subjects fun and interesting for children and help them learn better; they will be able to sow the seed of interest that will gradually transition into an exciting and fulfilling STEM career. Teachers should be the spark that ignite children’s passion for STEM and they can be that spark only if they are well trained.
“The way that technology companies can support women is to ensure that their cultures are inclusive and that they become places where women want to work and grow their careers...” - Marco Zappacosta, CEO and Co-Founder, Thumbtack, Inc.
Several studies point that the gender gap begins as early as grade school. The problem lies in society as girls are not encouraged to pursue science and math. They grow up with the general belief that they are not cut out for science subjects. Consequently, they end up pursuing arts or humanities.
According to the Harvard Business Review, women in science and technology jobs are 45 percent more likely to leave the industry just within a year compared to their men counterparts. The reason they cite varies from hostile work environment to disparity in wage. According to the US Census Bureau, the wage gap between men and women in the US is nearly $16,000 annually.
However, a new research by Paysa - a US survey salary firm - indicates that the initial obstacle the tech world needs to overcome is not paying women fairly, but getting them into the company in the first instance.
A report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) suggests that technology and engineering literacy scores, which measures whether students are able to apply tech and engineering skills to real-life situations, showed a 28-point gap between students from low-income families and their more affluent counterparts, and a 38-point gap between black and white students. If this discrepancy is to continue our country will suffer immensely.
Including more people in the STEM workforce, irrespective of gender and race, is as essential to build a stronger US economy and a better American enterprise. Women might be getting more educated than ever before, however, only 25 percent represent the community in STEM fields. Based on a research conducted by the US Chamber Foundation, the number of women graduates accounted for only 6 percent compared to the 20 percent of the male graduates in core STEM.
The Department for Professional Employee's report indicates that women made up 57.2 percent of all professional workers in 2015. They comprised 46.6 percent of science professionals, 24.7 percent of computer and math professionals, and 15.1 percent of engineering and architecture professionals.
The lack of women STEM professionals mostly stems from want of role models. With more of boys’ club in the field, a more women-friendly career in the tech industry is the need of the day. Also, with demand for data analysts, software engineers and web developers expected to outstrip supply by 2025, efforts are afoot to equip women to reap the benefits. And now with President Donald Trump’s recent signing of two laws that authorize NASA and the National Science Foundation to encourage women and girls to get into STEM fields, hopefully the figure will dramatically go up.
There has been a lot of noise and debate regarding the declining numbers and this is prompting several initiatives by the government as well as top companies. Former President Obama was very committed to STEM. He left no effort in making unprecedented levels of public-private partnerships in STEM education; policies and budgets concentrated on increasing student access and engagement. Now, even President Trump is going all out to promote and encourage STEM education.
Even top companies like Intel had pledged $300 million to train and recruit women and underrepresented minorities by 2020. Several companies are also wooing women, and those underrepresented populations and those with disabilities for STEM jobs to boost overall capacity and diversity.
With all the efforts of the politicians, policy makers, educators, public awareness is definitely increasing. We can see a host of events being organized across the US to promote STEM, such as the annual White House Science Fair initiated in 2010, robotics competitions, Maker Faires among many others.
However, we have a long way to go before we project ourselves as the leader in STEM. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics had projected that about 92 percent of STEM jobs will need some level of related higher education and top companies led by giants like Apple, Facebook and Amazon will have over 650,000 new vacancies to be filled by 2018.
To be able to beat that number, we need more STEM graduates. But most importantly, no more Sean-like stories of switching from STEM to non-STEM subjects. And for that to happen we need to incorporate hands-on learning in classrooms as well as outside in designing, constructing and creating.
As Aristotle had said:
“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
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Melissa, a brand communications professional, always wanted to rub shoulders with the who’s who of the STEM world. She lived in the bubble that once in college she would pursue engineering and thereafter a full-fledged STEM career. She enrolled for a degree in physics, but a few months into it, she realised she wasn’t cut out for the subject. Ultimately, she switched to humanities and ended up majoring in communications.
However, today she is a determined mother, who wants to see her daughter excel and pursue a career in STEM. She wants to inspire her little one as early as possible, as she attributes lack of early motivation to be the main reason behind her switching from physics. But her question is should she start introducing STEM to her four-year-old immediately or should she wait for a couple of years?
This is the dilemma raging in the minds of most parents and teachers as to when it is the right age or time to introduce STEM to children. They also battle between how and when to introduce the concepts in the early education process.
The answer is simple:
There’s no stipulated age or time to start the basics of STEM, meaning it’s never too early to start teaching your child.
And the ideal way to implement the concepts is by introducing them to nature or your surroundings. It is all about how you encourage your child to think in a more connected and holistic way.
Susan Hockfield, the first lady president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), believes that STEM education should be introduced as early as Kindergarten to enhance children's enthusiasm, interest and exposure. She feels that waiting to motivate children to take up STEM till they reach college will not boost their confidence level. She also believes that a strong K-6 foundation is required to make STEM learning easier for children. This is testimony to why taking up STEM in college has increasingly led to failure or disinterest.
As they say,
Kindergarten children are confident in spirit, infinite in resources and eager to learn. Everything is still possible.
Early education panel experts suggest you don’t need to incorporate digital learning tablets or some fancy technology while teaching STEM to your child. For instance, simply building structures with blocks can make them learn about engineering. Filling their plastic cups with holes drilled all over the cup can make them learn about water pressure. Using lights to create shadows can teach them several important concepts in physics.
These might be simple hands-on activities but can go a long way in helping your little one learn the basic concepts of STEM better and faster. Children are perfectly adapted to learn STEM concepts at a very young age. The only key is to tap into their innate and natural curiosity about the entire environment. It is, therefore, extremely important to catch them young and instil in them the curiosity to ask questions frequently and to dig deeper into the crux of the matter. Let’s take a lowdown of some of the key points as to why it is extremely crucial to start early.
Lilian G. Katz -- in her paper “Stem in the Early Years,” -- mentions that the best practice for early STEM education is to let children be actively engaged in their own learning. Research also indicates that when you allow your children to take their own initiatives, they reap the benefits long-term.
The Boston Children’s Museum’s “STEM Sprouts Teaching Guide” exhorts parents and teachers to encourage children to ask questions related to “what” rather than the “whys”. According to the guide, ‘what’ will focus on their surrounding and make them conscious of what they are noticing and doing, thus motivating them to investigate and dig deeper; while asking more of “why” means there’s always a ready answer to fall back on. This will make them better communicators, keen observers and confident enough to take on the world.
Studies reveal that children who are exposed to STEM early on fare better in academics than those who are introduced late.
Research also indicates how teachers who are well-equipped to teach STEM play an important role in guiding children, who outperform students with less experienced teachers
Image credit: Pexels: Allan Mas.
One of the best practices in teaching STEM is to make learning more relevant by letting children explore their environment. The more actively engaged they are with their environment and surrounding, the faster they will grasp and learn things.
For instance, instead of creating math worksheets to help teach counting, you can take your children out and help them count real objects in their surrounding like flowers, leaves, benches, pillars etc. This technique will help them learn better as they are learning the concepts in an interesting context rather than sitting in the classroom and learning by rote.
Long-term studies have also shown that when you integrate math and science learning by letting children explore their surroundings, the learning becomes more relevant. Children become more observant as they start identifying objects and exploring patterns, shapes and sizes.
For instance, did you know that the most bridges and constructions have triangular shapes; it is because the triangle offers highest structural strength in geometry.
Children also get inquisitive and start asking questions, thus stimulating their sense of investigation. As this concept keeps them naturally engaged, they not only enjoy their learning process, but also get to develop their STEM skills.
Early education of your children should be to tap into their natural curiosity and give them enough opportunity to be actively involved in their own learning. A natural setting, in all likelihood, will create limitless options to investigate and go in depth, thus helping them strengthen their STEM skills and lay a strong foundation for their learning. The passive, rote-learning technique that most schools adopt should be replaced with an active, hands-on, interactive learning, including do-it-yourself (DIY) activities.
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According to the Census Bureau, about 74 percent of college graduates with STEM degrees switch to non-STEM jobs, including social work, law, arts etc. The switch is mainly because those students do not enjoy STEM subjects as they were not exposed to STEM early on.
Once they reach college, the curriculum seems either boring or difficult to cope with, thus making them go back to their comfort level. Despite the demand for STEM graduates with higher salaries than their non-STEM counterparts, students refuse to pursue STEM careers. This is indeed a bad news for employers and firms that want to fill the STEM positions.
It has been observed that children who are introduced to STEM early on, set the stage for their college curriculum later. Besides scoring higher in the SAT and needing less remedial classes when they start college, these children are most likely to pursue a career in STEM with confidence. Since they have a better understanding of foundational STEM practices, they develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. STEM experiences also provide children with inspiring, engaging and relevant contexts in which to implement and learn several skills they are working on.
Therefore parents and educators should remember that children require high-quality early STEM education that will shape their minds and beliefs, which in turn will see them transition into successful STEM professionals. Also, educators should consider several ways they use technology as a learning tool and encourage children from being media consumers to media creators that will focus on using them for collaboration, communication, documentation, discovery, research and exploration.
Image credit: Pixabay.
According to a 2016 jobs report by CNN Money, there are about 5.8 million STEM job openings in the US that are awaiting to be filled. But there are just not enough skilled professionals to fill the vacancies.
This skill-set shortage can be critical to the economy, as companies lose hundreds of dollars in a day, creating a negative impact. Several economic projections point out that there’s a need for 1 million STEM professionals than the US can churn out at the current rate in the next 10 years. STEM jobs have increasingly grown by 17 percent compared to the 10 percent growth rate of non-STEM jobs.
One of the key factors for this slow trend is the late introduction of STEM to schoolchildren. Investing in STEM education early for children is no more a luxury today but a necessity. Encouraging students to use iPads and laptops might make them more tech savvy and might be a step-forward in the right direction.
However, only use of technology is insufficient to fill the STEM skill-set gap. If we want US to stay ahead of the STEM curve, we need our students to learn hands-on and be more interactive by integrating the STEM curriculum in their education early on. Children need to be the creators of technology rather than be the consumers of it.
STEM is undoubtedly getting integrated in most of the US schools, but how many of those schools are introducing STEM early on?
According to the Math and Science Initiative, about 38 percent of students who take up STEM major in college end up dropping out; while 69 percent of high school graduates are not well-prepared to take up college-level science or math. This substantiates the fact that the students do not get the required exposure, support and guidance from their parents or teachers during the formative years.
It had never been so crucial to catch children young and tap on their STEM skills as early as Kindergarten. It is imperative that parents, educators, business and political leaders come together to promote and encourage students to use technology not as consumers but as innovative creators and makers through their classroom curriculum.
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Today we are largely dependent on foreign talent to fill in the STEM vacancies that remain unfilled throughout the country. A report from Brookings indicate that there are about 66 percent foreign students studying STEM as compared to a mere 48 percent of Americans. Also, the number of native-born students pursuing STEM degrees is growing at merely 1% yearly. The dismal growth at this age can be attributed to the fact that students are not being exposed to STEM at an early age despite a lot of talk about STEM and its benefits.
STEM workforce from the US -- intrinsic for the country’s national security, global competitiveness and innovation enterprise -- has seen a decline compared to the workforce from other developed countries. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology indicated that the US need to increase its yearly rate of undergraduate STEM degrees by over 34 percent to match the demand forecast for STEM professionals.
Mobilising homegrown talent should be the top priority, besides creating a huge corpus for STEM teacher training and mentoring initiative. We also need to dispel the gender and disparity gap in STEM.
According to the Cornell University Physics Teacher Education Coalition, there is a massive shortage of physics teachers leading to a real crisis-like situation. High school physics is essential for all STEM careers. This shortage is affecting students as they remain unprepared for college STEM curriculum.
A Cornell University study shows an alarming trend that needs to be rectified in order to have home-bred, well-trained teachers. Based on the study, 90 percent of students in the middle school are taught physics, chemistry or general sciences by a teacher without any major or certification in the subjects.
Out of all the other subjects, physics has taken the most hit as there is a severe shortage of well-trained teachers, with only one-third of them having a degree. It was also reported that 52 percent of the high schools in New York do not even offer physics. Also, almost one-third of all physics teachers in high school have taken less than three college physics classes.
Children are always curious to explore and inquisitive about the world around them. However, how far their curiosity is sustained depends on how much support and guidance they get from their elders, parents or teachers. They lose interest in things very easily, if we fail to motivate them by giving them timely solutions or answers. The prerogative should be to guide and foster interest to ignite their minds and ensure early STEM experiences. We should remember that our attitude towards STEM learning will profoundly influence our children’s beliefs and ultimately impact their abilities.
The US might be in the midst of a STEM revolution today, as STEM takes a forefront with policymakers and educators recognizing the paradigm shift in the economy. However, the truth is that the floundering demographics speak otherwise and the US has a long way to go to be self-reliant on home-grown talent.
STEM includes the most engaging, hands-on subjects, but the way it is taught in schools needs to be more engrossing, more interactive and above all fun to be able to lure and catch the young minds early in life.
There should be more of Melissas coming forward to guide and nurture their little ones early in life to take up STEM so that their children don’t flounder or switch to non-STEM subjects when they reach college and when it is time to begin their careers.
To sum up, it would be apt to quote Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of US News:
“While our universities are producing more STEM graduates, many of these students are foreigners on temporary visas. Despite significant public and private investment, we are still not developing an American STEM workforce to fill the jobs of the future. It’s clear that we need to focus our efforts on getting more kids, particularly women and African-Americans, interested in pursuing STEM at a young age.”
All of us are born makers. Whether we are writing poetry or fiction or making our own gadgets, we need creativity and imagination.
As Albert Einstein put it:
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
But sometimes in order to give wings to our imagination and soar high, we need a little guidance. At Mand Labs we believe, it’s just a matter of finding the right way to start. After all, the world is but a canvas to the imagination.
We live in a world where we are constantly surrounded by electronic gadgets and gizmos. Our lives are so infused with electronics that we will benefit more if we learn at least the basics of electronics. We don’t need to be an electrical engineer or have prior knowledge to understand how to read schematics, build circuits, solder or program. We just need to have a childlike curiosity and a great imaginative mind to look at things in a creative perspective.
Through Mand Labs KIT-1, we intend to make your journey of learning and building electronics simple, fun and easy to relate to. The R&D team at Mand Labs had spent an extensive time of over 40 months in researching, detailing and building user-friendly instructions that will guide you step by step whenever you get stuck. The comprehensive and simplified guide will let you have fun while you work your way through an extensive array of 50+ projects.
Moreover, our books, visual steps, video lectures and tech support will help you understand the concepts and build a strong theoretical base. So, whether you are an enthusiast or a beginner, if you are 14 years and above and ready to delve deep, KIT-1 is ready to help you explore new avenues. You just need to be ready to experiment, observe, learn and repeat
Yes, we got you covered. KIT-1 caters to your academic needs, as its course topics cover 20 percent of IGCSE Cambridge Curriculum and 30 percent of AP Physics C, including electricity and magnetism. So those of you planning to take up engineering or a major in physics, will get to learn the basic concepts hands-on covering basic electrical theory, current and electricity, electrostatics, capacitors and semiconductors. What’s more? You will also self-learn and retain more, as you work on application-oriented projects.
KIT-1 courseware covers the following topics in detail:
Charge, Battery, Voltage, Current, Resistance, LED, Multimeter, Resistors, Ohm's law, Series and Parallel Combination, Variable Resistors: Potentiometer, Preset and LDR, Switches, Capacitors, Relay, Semiconductors, Diode and Its Types, Digital Logic Gates: NOT, OR, AND, NOT, NAND, Zener Diode, DC Motor, Transistors, IR Sensor, Thermistor, Inductors.
Included with KIT-1, are two reference books that will help you in in-depth analysis of working circuits, including reasoning, path of currents and the maths behind. The theories in the books will help you build your confidence and prepare you for challenging problems. Also, playing and working with raw electrical and electronic components will make you feel more connected to how technology works. Who knows, you might outperform your peers in academics!
All the great inventors and makers of the world were great tinkerers once, who loved to spend time experimenting and using their ideas to innovate things in the confines of their home. Let’s take the example of Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, who loved to tinker and fiddle with electrical devices from a very young age and turned his parents’ garage into his own lab. You can never stop a tinkerer or a maker from fiddling with gadgets or hacking his/her way to something creative.
If you are a DIY maker and want to delve deep into things and love to innovate, you can start building things on your own with KIT-1. It is is designed in such a way that it can double up as your personal lab, where you can unleash your creativity, give shape to your thoughts and ideas, explore new concepts and implement them. After all, it’s your time, your space, your muse and your storyboard.
Whether you want to build your own automatic night lamp for your bedroom or decorate your house with the LED lights for Christmas, our rich content will help you get there.
A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas -- Mathematician G. H. Hardy
Sometimes you might be having a great idea, but it might not work out as great as you thought. So, building your own prototypes and testing them will help you to better your ideas and improve your project significantly. If you have an idea and a great imagination, nothing can stop you from being a maker. But there’s no fun in learning if you don’t burn a few components or mess things up. All makers and inventors were passionately curious to explore their creativity and come up with their geniuses.
For instance, Graham Bell’s first prototype of his telephone was a thin sheet of metal, known as diaphragm, held in front of an electromagnet. When he spoke, his voice struck the diaphragm and electricity was generated in the coils of the electromagnet. The electric currents were then transmitted to a receiver in another room. It was only after various trials and improvisation that Bell got his final product.
So, if you were ever interested in designing and prototyping circuits, KIT-1 will let you take a step forward and help you work with real-world electronic components and tools, develop an understanding of how each part works, learn the technique to treat parts as building blocks and use different blocks to build an array of projects. You will also learn to deduce the laws of physics that govern the quantities and then draw your own conclusions. So, that’s how you will develop an important skill which will help in bringing your ideas to life. Moreover, you will do-it-yourself.
 
We all know that critical thinking is essential to be able to solve any problem in life whether big or small, besides helping you to take decisions. When you start building or tinkering with your ideas, you will start questioning your own assumptions rather than taking them at face value. You will identify, analyze and try to solve problems systematically rather than by intuition.
KIT-1 will help you in developing a structured thought process to solve problems by taking you through rigorous building process and analytics. You will soon be developing a habit of delving deep into the matter and looking for answers as to how things are made and what processes go into making them.
Using the kit will make you look at problems from a different perspective. However, don’t expect that your first solution will work instantly all the time. Sometimes, it might fail spectacularly. At that moment, just step back and explore other ways to get to the solution. Eventually, you will discover new and interesting facts and might explore something dazzling!
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How true was Joe Namath, an American footballer and actor, when he said:
“When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.”
When your confidence level is built, you become a different person, totally. You will not only be self-reliant, but you will also be able to break stereotypes as you will be able to use your mind and hands resourcefully. The concept of “Mind and Hand” is traced to the idea of science and education that shaped MIT and defined its mission.
Attitude is infectious. It cannot be taught, but it can definitely be caught. Using KIT-1 will empower you to think independently and creatively like a maker, and hence enable you to figure things out on your own. Your “can do” attitude will do wonders as you gain confidence and get more resourceful as a professional. You will be the go-to-person for solving abstract problems with difficult solutions. You will learn the art of frugality and incorporate your habit of DIY in your work ethics. Above all, you will be a better, responsible, dependable and efficient person.
For instance, Benjamin Franklin made a name for himself at an early age of 11. He created paddles for his hands to enable him to swim faster. Today, swimmers take advantage of his creation, called flippers. Likewise, you will build the confidence to make things on your own, nurture your innate entrepreneurial talent and build a successful career.
KIT-1 is a power-packed box as you can build projects, gain skills, understand technology and have fun. It not only caters to your academics, enhances your creativity, teaches you to solve your own problems, helps you with prototyping skills but also boosts your confidence level.
But remember, learning never stops. So, if you think you are through with all your projects in KIT-1, you can expect more. Yes, KIT-1 is modular, reusable and upgradeable to advanced modules that cover integrated circuits, sensors and programming. When you upgrade, you will develop a holistic and comprehensive knowledge of the subject.
Our entire curriculum is divided into multiple learning levels, meaning more components, more projects and greater fun. KIT-1 is designed in such a way that you don’t need to be a genius or a scientist or an expert in electronics to use it. So, go ahead and experience the magic of technology and let your imagination run wild, who knows your insights might lead to a great invention!
Through the years, we’ve had users who have come up with super-creative projects like homemade Christmas lights that generate a series of random patterns, multi-touch surface, electronic casino games, automatic safe alarm among others.
And now it’s your turn to dazzle the world with your creative ideas.
So, what are you waiting for?
STEM is an inevitable part of our lives today. Science and technology have made our lives so comfortable that we cannot imagine a world without entertainment or staying in touch with family and friends or traveling in comfort and safety.
We can sing endless eulogies about the innumerable benefits STEM has endowed us. But we also need to remind our children how it has influenced several events in history and made America a great nation. And, what better day than the National STEM Day on November 8 to inspire and encourage our children?
To celebrate the day, let’s show them how Hollywood has embraced STEM and come up with several movies that have changed the lives of many and inspired hundreds of millions.
The list of STEM-related movies is endless, but we have compiled some of our favorites that will help our children get started. These movies will also build interest in them to explore and pursue STEM. However, be prepared to answer several questions that your curious little one will have in between the movie marathon.
Hidden Figures is a heartwarming true story based on the life of three African-American women mathematicians working at NASA. The three, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) were instrumental in the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, the first American to orbit the earth.
The motivating movie by Theodore Melfi demonstrates the power of mathematics and how it can turn things around. Watch this movie for the visionary trio, who beat all the odds to triumph and inspire generations.
Spare Parts is based on a true story of a group of high school students, who win a robotics competition at MIT regardless of all the stumbling blocks. Director Sean McNamara portrays the dream of the team, their journey and the bond that they build for a lifetime.
The unforgettable tale of wit, hope and humor shines through as Fredi Cameron (played by George Lopez), the students’ substitute teacher, challenges his students and shows them the power of perseverance. Watch it for the brilliant performance of all the cast as they take you through their struggle and eventually success.
The Martian is the story of astronaut Mark Watney’s struggle for survival in space after his team assumes him dead and leaves him behind. Matt Damon brilliantly portrays Watney’s attempt to survive with his meager supplies using his ingenuity.
Watch how Watney finds a way to send a message across to the earth that he is alive, and eventually how NASA and a team of scientists come up with a rescue mission to get “the Martian” home. The over two-hour-long movie, based on Andy Weir’s book The Martian, is a story of incredible bravery and how Watney uses his resourcefulness to survive on the hostile planet.
Matthew Brown takes us on the academic and life journey of genius Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and how he forges a friendship with his mentor and professor, G.H. Hardy (played by Jeremy Irons) in The Man Who Knew Infinity. Dev Patel, who essays the role of Ramanujan, beautifully portrays the mathematician's stellar intelligence in math, his struggles from a clerk to a globally recognized mathematician.
It is based on Robert Kanigel’s book by the same name. The movie dramatizes how the poverty-stricken Ramanujan attracts the attention of renowned British mathematics professor, G.H. Hardy, who invites him to Cambridge University to test his mettle as a theoretical mathematician during World War I. Watch how the journey defines Ramanujan as one of the greatest modern scholars, who pioneered several mathematical theories.
Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar traces the journey of a group of astrophysicists, who travel through a wormhole in space in an endeavor to look for a new abode for mankind. Nolan portrays the idea of space travel, time, and gravity as the earth and humanity are on the verge of extinction. The protagonist, a former NASA pilot, played by Matthew McConaughey, leads his crew and travels to where no one had ever gone before - a planet that may be able to sustain human life.
The thought-provoking space odyssey will keep you and your child hooked till the end. Not to mention that the music in the movie will make you feel like you are floating in outer space. However, be ready to answer a volley of questions your kid will throw at you during the movie – the wormholes, Einstein’s relativity, space-time curvature, singularity, and so on.
Morten Tyldum takes us on a nail-biting race against time in The Imitation Game. It is based on a true-life story of British cryptanalyst Alan Turing, who along with his fellow mathematicians, decrypts the German’s Enigma code during World War II, and saved millions of lives by predicting where the German’s next target would be. The movie depicts how Turing succeeds in building the Turing machine, named Christopher, despite the odds and eventually cracks the German intelligence codes. You will be surprised to know that the Turing machine was the first computer built to decode the German codes.
Benedict Cumberbatch essays the role of Turing to perfection. Benedict Cumberbatch essays the role of Turing to perfection. The film is about the events that changed history and the genius of the man, Alan Turing, and his colossal achievements.
The Theory of Everything is a biographical drama adapted from Jane Hawking’s memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life With Stephen. James Marsh’s film looks at the life of the most brilliant and celebrated theoretical physicist of our time, Stephen Hawking: His success, the diagnosis of his fatal illness, and his relationship with his wife.
Imagine a place where nothing exists- no space, no time, and no matter. The place is called Singularity. The movie shows how Hawking embarks on his research to discover singularity around a black hole and fights against his illness to get his Ph.D.
This space odyssey by Alfonso Cuaron is an account of how two astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) during a spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope, get hit by the debris of the Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite and they lose communication with the earth.
Gravity will take you on a thrilling ride as the astronauts go spiraling in the darkness after their space station gets hit mid-orbit. Watch the 90-minute-long movie to see their struggle and how they attempt to get back to earth. The exciting and visually appealing movie will get you hooked with its gripping storyline and background music.
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Moneyball might fall under a sports genre since it revolves around Oakland Athletics baseball team’s manager, Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt). However, it is not a sports movie per se, as it veers more towards the role of math and how it can turn around the game. Based on a true story, Moneyball depicts how Beane feels handicapped in selecting the best team because of salary constraints until he meets Peter Brand, a young Yale economics graduate with radical views on how to assess players’ value.
The film gets interesting as the duo Beane and Brand, who is hired as the athletics assistant general manager, form a great baseball team using statistics. Watch this film to see how mathematics transformed the entire selection process; how it can be applied in our everyday lives; and how pursuing maths could be a possible professional path in the least expected places.
Robert Luketic’s 21 draws inspiration from Ben Mezrich's book, Bringing Down the House, based on a true story of five MIT math geniuses trained to take on Las Vegas and rake in millions at Blackjack, a card counting game, also known as 21. Micky Rosa (played by Kevin Spacey), a math professor, recruits five MIT students and uses their skills to outsmart the wolves at Las Vegas casinos.
This story is also about Ben Campbell (played by Jim Sturgess), a brilliant student at MIT, who desperately wants a scholarship to fund his tuition fee of $300,000 at the Harvard School of Medicine. Find out how Campbell’s fate changes when Rosa hires him into his secretive club of five; and how he goes on secret weekend trips to Vegas along with the rest of the team, and they win hundreds of dollars using their math skills.
Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind is based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. Russell Crowe portrays Nash’s character brilliantly as one of the greatest mathematicians, who develops schizophrenia and suffers a mental breakdown. Winner of the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director among others, the movie begins with Nash’s early years at Princeton University as he comes up with the game theory of economics that has an impact on our lives today. Whether in engineering, auction, stock market, corporate mergers and acquisitions, high level of negotiations, defense, or medical science the application of the game theory of economics is profound.
Watch the extraordinary story about the life of the mathematical genius and how numbers can be used to decode and predict human behavior in different situations.
October Sky is based on a true story about a coal miner’s son, who went to make rockets after being inspired by the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1975. The director, Joe Johnston, focuses on how Homer H. Hickam, Jr., (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) defies his father’s wishes to join him in the mines and becomes a NASA engineer later in life.
Find out how Homer tries to build rockets along with his friends despite the entire town’s scepticism about their project. After a lot of trial and error and with only their science teacher’s support, they go on to win the National Science Fair, where the prize money is college scholarships. This biographical movie resonates with Hickman’s biography, Rocket Boys: A Memoir, where the message of following your dream is loud and clear.
Good Will Hunting is a tale of an MIT janitor who suffers from an identity crisis. Matt Damon as Will Hunting beautifully depicts the struggles of the 20-year-old and the journey through his mind. Hunting is an unrecognized genius forced to take up therapy instead of a jail sentence after he assaults a police officer.
Watch how director Gus Van Sant takes the story ahead as Hunting agrees to see a therapist and study advanced mathematics with a renowned professor. However, he is yet to find his place in the world until he meets psychologist Sean Maguire (Robbie Williams). Go figure how Hunting can solve any mathematical problem thrown at him but fails to realize his value in the world till he understands what matters to him the most.
This docudrama based on the suspended 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission is a nail-biting space odyssey, where director Ron Howard goes to a great length to create a technically precise movie. The film depicts how astronauts Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon), and Fred Haise ( Bill Paxton) onboard Apollo 13 for America’s third moon landing mission, suffer a setback after massive internal damage on their spacecraft; and their struggle to survive.
As NASA devises a strategy to get the three astronauts home safely with their spacecraft deprived of electricity and oxygen, you will be on the edge of your seat.
Director Robert Zemeckis succeeds in keeping his audience engaged in this science-fantasy movie. Coupled with adventure and comedy, Back to the Future is about a teen of the 80s. Marty Mcfly (played by Michael J. Fox) is accidentally sent 30 years backward in a plutonium-powered time machine by his friend, an eccentric scientist, doctor Emmett Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd).
Find out how the 17-year-old Marty copes with being in the fifties and how he gets his teenage parents to meet and fall in love to make things right. And now he needs to get back to the present, which is 1985. But how? Go figure!
And what is your favorite STEM movie?
Did we miss any of it? Please let us know in the comment section.
Whether you want to nurture your child’s innate science talent or help tap on your future scientist’s potential at an early age, Mand Labs kit will keep your child engaged and curious and also enhance his or her hands-on learning skills.
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Did you know that people with STEM degrees or certifications are not only occupying prime positions in the economy today, but are also out-earning professionals with PhDs in other fields?
If the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce’s report is anything to go by, then STEM major professionals earn approximately $500,000 more in their lifetime than professionals with non-STEM majors.
But if we are to raise our children as STEM leaders and professionals of tomorrow, we need to examine how are we nurturing and preparing them for these roles in future.
Are we raising creative and critical thinkers; or as educator John W. Gardner puts it:
“Are we giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants?”
One of the most inspiring playgrounds for children today has been created by the Maker Movement, where children get to explore and rely heavily on their innovation and creativity. This movement has also seen the burgeoning of social innovation, where creativity and STEM work in tandem, and has been instrumental in changing billions of lives.
And it is undoubtedly you -- a parent extraordinaire -- who can support your budding robotics engineer or future coder or scientist by involving them with hands-on, do-it-yourself (DIY) activities and nurture their science talent. This is also the perfect way to bond with your child and learn together.
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Does your nine-year-old constantly ask you innumerable questions about gadgets, how things work in real life and so on? Does he keep tinkering with his electronic toys and often rips them apart? Well, you need to remember what Albert Einstein had said:
Play is the highest form of research. So, encourage your little one to tinker more and tap on his science talent. Make him/her understand how to work with tools and components; how to use math and logic to build things; how to give shape to an idea.
In case this is something that you haven’t dabbled before and you are wondering how to go about it, don’t worry, KIT-1 can take care of all your needs. You and your child can get the taste of your first project by glowing an LED or beeping a buzzer.
The kit, which comes with an array of 50+ projects along with step-by-step building instructions, lets you play with real-world electronic components; understand how each part works through a mix of hands-on experiments and projects; and yes, lets you experience the joy of technology, design and innovation.
The kit is a great way for you and your child to start your DIY experiments and kickstart your budding engineer’s hands-on learning. As author Dr Seuss puts it:
"Children want... to be challenged, to be entertained, and delighted."
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Who doesn’t aspire to see his/her child have a rewarding STEM career? Yes, parents all across are waking up to the fact that STEM is everywhere today and STEM fields across domains are fueling innovation and creating new businesses, products, and services.
In fact, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected that by 2022 over 3 million STEM jobs will be filled across all levels starting from R&D to teaching, design to practitioner, management functions to technologist.
This serves as one of the pointers as to why it is the right time to introduce STEM to your child. But as Anatole France, a French poet, journalist and novelist had said:
“Nine tenths of education is encouragement.”
So, to support your child in STEM, you have to tap your future scientist’s potential at an early age and nurture and identify his/her core strengths and interests. To begin with, find new and interactive ways to engage your kid and make learning fun and interesting, possibly with DIY projects.
Think DIY and think Mand Labs! Let your child be a maker and experiment with circuits for science and technology projects or for his/her academic assessments, science fairs, exhibitions and robotics hobby.
If your child is a robotics or DIY enthusiast, he/she will be able to build a strong foundation in electronics with KIT-1. The kit will also help your child assemble circuits on the breadboard involving multiple active and passive electronic components; work on important circuits like H-Bridge (motor-driving circuit) and PWM (pulse width modulation) and even let him invent his own first project with his imagination and creativity, as writer Mark VanDoren puts it:
“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”
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A Nielsen study reveals that over 70 percent of kids under 12 years use tablets today. They spend around five to six hours in a day staring at screens, either playing games or watching YouTube videos, movies or on social media.
Another survey by the Common Sense Media found that nearly 40 percent of children between two and four years were often seen with a tablet or a mobile in their hands. This is more so because parents use tablets or mobiles as a way of pacifying their kids and keeping them engaged. Research shows that one in three toddlers use gadgets even before they can speak.
Excessive screen-time is no doubt hitting parents hard as their children’s activity has given way to aggression, depression, obesity, poor social skills and academic under-achievement. How true were experts when they warned that 80 percent of the children would lead a sedentary lifestyle due to the iPads, in fact, even before they were launched in 2010!
There have been innumerable instances when parents had to look for ways to detox their iPad addict children. Take the case of Guy Adams, a journalist, when he realized that his toddler was addicted to the iPad he wrote:
“The sense of shame and sadness which came over me when I realized that my infant son was an addict will stay with me forever.”
Similar evidence of iPad addiction is mounting by the day as frazzled parents look for ways to unplug their iPad-addicted children.
Catherine Steiner-Adair, a clinical psychologist, advises parents not to turn to tech to pacify children. “Children learn from play, especially pre and primary schoolchildren. Be sure your kids spend more time playing and learning hands-on engagement in the real world,” she adds.
This is where the Mand Labs’ kit comes in handy, as your child will get to explore something new and interesting. The experiments will keep your child engaged and curious and also enhance his/her hands-on learning skills.
A meta-analysis research of 15 years on the advantages of hands-on learning, including 57 studies of 13,000 students in 1,000 classrooms, reveals that students in activity-based programs performed up to 20 percent higher than groups using traditional or textbook approaches.
The research also found that hands-on learning corresponds to a child’s natural curiosity and problem-solving skills. Mand Labs kit lead your child forward in hands-on, DIY learning, as your child gets his/her hands dirty with experiments like controlling lights or the temperature sensor or the LED flasher. The projects will teach your child how to apply simple laws of physics and understand how they work.
According to Robert A. Bjork’s 20 year old concept, ‘desirable difficulty’:
"Obstacles that frustrate us help us learn”.
So, don’t let your child give up even if in the first instance he/she is not able to snap the circuits right.
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Nothing can beat the quality time that you spend with your children. But if you are a working parent juggling between deadlines and household chores, your little one might feel neglected. So, how do you manage to make way for a great bonding time? They say, families that play together, stay together.
Creating those magic moments is more important than anything else. Reading together with your child can be a great activity to keep your child engaged. But building things together can keep the spark alive.
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn,” says Ignacio Estrada, director, grants administration at Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation."
Mand Labs’ kit can give you the best experience to set the ball rolling. Imagine the glimmer of joy on your child’s face when you build your first automatic night lamp together. Also, imagine how thrilled you will be when your child surprises you with his own version of the burglar alarm. The things you and your child can build and bond together with the Mand Labs’ kit are endless. For an experience, have a look at the teaser below:
Teaching your child the basics of electronics can never be easy. But if you do it the right way, you will discover how fast your child picks up and enjoys every bit of it.
“Let your boys test their wings. They may not be eagles, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t soar free” - Author C.J Milbrandt.
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You must be showering your little one with gifts every now and then. But when was the last time you had gifted your kid a gift of inspiration? A gift that will make an impact and benefit your child lifelong; a gift that will let him/her explore curricular concepts with imagination, creativity and confidence?
As Albert Einstein had said:
"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science."
To be able to inspire your child in science that will gradually transition into an exciting and fulfilling STEM career, you need to inculcate the importance and merits of STEM at an early age. When you enable your kid to explore and experiment without the fear of failing, you boost his/her confidence.
Gifting your kid with Mand Labs KIT-1 will definitely amp up his/her confidence level. When hands-on learning electronics gets fun and interactive, your child will enjoy the experience and ask for more. This kit lets you learn in the most simplest and comprehensive way possible.
Several studies and research have proved that the long-term benefits of hands-on learning are immense. For instance, a four-year study on the benefits of hands-on learning conducted in an elementary school in California, found that the longer students participated in hands-on learning, the higher were their scores in science, writing, reading, and mathematics.
So, take a step forward today and gift your child the greatest gift of inspiration this Thanksgiving or Christmas. Partner with your child to decorate the Christmas tree with glittering, multi-colored LEDs and home-made circuits and make this festive season fun-filled with lots of lights, learning and inspiration.
Let your little scientist tap his/her inner STEM creativeness and embark on a journey to be a genius. Who knows your future genius might soon surprise you with an innovation of his own, as Albert Einstein had said:
“Education is not the learning of facts, it’s rather the training of the mind to think.”
While I was researching for this article, I stumbled upon a blog, which read: “If Susan can learn physics, so can you.” This is the tale of a girl who had never studied physics and had not learned anything beyond sixth grade math just because people told her she was not a ‘math person’. It was only during her undergraduate philosophy course that she discovered the joy of learning physics, and it changed the course of her life forever!
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“Like most of us, I had heard throughout my life that math and physics were really difficult. If you weren’t “smart”, you shouldn’t even bother trying to learn either, people would say,” Susan J. Fowler writes in her blog, Fledgling Physicist.
This might be the story of millions of people today, who aren’t inspired or motivated to learn STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) at an early age. They end up studying humanities or arts just because they were told they were not good enough for the subject. “That is one of the biggest, most hurtful, and most destructive lies anyone can perpetuate,” Susan adds.
“…there are so many people out there, like me, who were told at some point that they weren’t a math person, people who never had the opportunity to learn math or physics, and they are missing out on so much,” writes Susan, who is today an author and the Editor-in-Chief of Increment, a digital magazine dedicated to covering the state of software engineering and cloud computing.
As former president Barack Obama had remarked during the White House Science Fair, 2015:
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“STEM is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world …. “
Right from the time when Thomas Alva Edison invented the electric light in 1878 to this day, we have seen many scientists, engineers and innovators raising new questions and raising the bar with their creative imagination and innovation, fueling us with products and services that have made our lives easier, better and faster, be it healthcare, government, education, manufacturing, transport, agriculture, mining, construction, and the list is endless. If not for people in STEM, we would not be basking in the marvels of science and technology today.
Ever wondered how tiring it would have been using animal appliances, just like the characters of the epic Flintstones series? But, yabba-dabba-doo, as Fred Flintstone would have cheered! Fortunately, we live in the 21st century and our children are born in an era where technology supersedes everything in life. This substantiates why it is absolutely important to catch our children young and teach them how STEM is everywhere today; how it has simplified things for us, so much so that we can’t think of a day or life without our smartphones or electricity.
It is apt to quote, Rosalind Franklin, an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer, who said:
“Science and everyday lives should not be separated”.
With each and every sector harnessing the benefits of STEM today, STEM plays an integral role in our lives. Undoubtedly, it is extremely critical that we motivate and support our children in STEM early on to be the ultimate beneficiaries and practitioners of this modern evil. Let’s look at the broader picture of why it is the right time to embrace STEM now.
“For our country and our companies to advance, we need talented young people to be involved. If we inspire them in science and engineering today, we secure our ability to innovate tomorrow.” — Patricia Elizondo, former Senior Vice President, Xerox Corporation
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In 2009, the US Department of Labor had listed the 10 most wanted employees, out of which eight were the ones with STEM degrees in domains like accounting, computer science, electrical, mechanical, civil, and computer engineering; economics and finance.
The US Department of Commerce reports that STEM jobs are increasing at 17 percent, while the growth of non-STEM jobs is at 12 percent.
After nearly a decade, the demand for STEM jobs has more or less remained the same as we can see from CNBC’s round up for 2017. This signifies the flat and continued demand for STEM professionals. CNBC had also projected an employment increase of 14 percent or more in STEM between 2014 and 2024, all with a salary of over $90,000 annually.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers’ report states that over half the employers surveyed wanted to hire professionals with STEM degrees, making them the most-sought-after candidates in the job market.
The soaring demand for experienced STEM professionals continues as organizations are looking for ways to exploit the power of STEM. The number of job postings related to STEM on Indeed.com has increased substantially over the last 12 months.
STEM has also made our lives easier and helped improve efficiencies in our houses, offices, buildings, surroundings and cars through the Internet of Things (IOT). The IOT helps connect devices to the Internet or to each other. It can be your smartphone, smartwatch, home appliances, lamps, headphones, machines and everything you can think of.
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What’s more? As data is an ever increasing valued-asset across all industries, the IOT is making the process of data collection and processing a cakewalk through wireless sensor networks and artificial intelligence. Imagine when almost everything is connected, the IOT will allow businesses and industries such as energy, transportation, manufacturing etc., the ability to analyze and get insights from huge volumes of data and thus, enable our devices to take smart decisions within a fraction of a second.
For instance, BMW has harnessed IOT and is allowing owners to connect their vehicles to their homes with apps that can be used in the car and on the smartphone. Likewise, IOT services has also helped logistics major, DHL, get real-time visibility and insights from connected devices and increase operational efficiency and expedite pick-up and delivery process.
Did you know that your favorite coffee shop, Starbucks, also relies on IOT? Starbucks depends on mobile connectivity and ensures continuous uptime to support store transactions in case DSL network conks off. Let’s also take a look at how Boston Scientific, one of the major manufacturers of medical devices, is changing the way we look at healthcare through IOT. Boston Scientific pulls out patients’ data wirelessly from implanted pacemakers and communicates to doctors through mobile connectivity.
So, with almost all the top companies and industries using IOT, the analyst firm Gartner, had predicted that there will be over 26 billion connected devices by 2020.
This means there is a huge demand for STEM professionals today and there will be even more vacancies in the future. In fact, all top companies, including Amazon, AT&T, Google, Cisco, Bosch, Dell, GE, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Siemens, Oracle, Samsung, etc. are getting ready for the battle of interconnected devices.
It is therefore utterly important for educational institutions and academia to create a thriving environment that promotes IOT and related skills, and equip students with the right set of tools, knowledge and mindset to meet the challenges ahead. A major focus on STEM education is likely the key to inculcate innovation among young children and prepare them for a better future.
The number of open positions in the STEM fields continue to grow each year. However, as the demand for STEM skills is going up steadily, there is a huge deficit for skilled professionals currently. Though STEM-based jobs are considered ‘hot and in-demand’, there are innumerable unfilled vacancies across the world because of the skill-set shortage.
A study conducted by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce points out that there will be 8 million STEM jobs in the US by 2018. However, 3 million vacancies might go unfilled due to the skill gap. This is an alarming number for our economy.
As the demand for the right skillset across industries continues to skyrocket, it is also important for companies to introduce formal training for updating skills of existing STEM professionals as well as aspirants. Whether it is core STEM or STEM-related fields, just being a STEM graduate is insufficient to take on the disrupting industry head on without proper training and direction.
Apart from training, do we realise how important it is to lay the right foundation at the right age? We all know that our nation has always had a widespread shortage of science and engineering workforce, and if this trend continues, we are likely to fall behind our major economic competitors. The only corrective step forward would be to improve the American K-12 education system in science and mathematics.
There is also an urgent need to introduce formal training in STEM for teachers who will mould our future generation. Did you know that 30 percent of the physics teachers don’t even have a major in the subject and they have not even earned a certificate to teach physics?
Strong demand for STEM skills is boosting the wages for qualified professionals. This phenomenon is witnessing a revolutionary change in the job market.
According to a study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, STEM major professionals earn approximately $500,000 more in their lifetime compared to professionals with non-STEM majors. The study has also revealed that in the past three decades, salaries of STEM professionals have jumped by 31 percent, while for non-STEM professionals, the hikes were only 23 percent. This speaks volumes of how a career in STEM is not only challenging but also financially rewarding.
“Today's advanced STEM graduate could be tomorrow's world-class, world-changing scientist." - Todd Park, former CTO of the US and technology advisor for Obama
With STEM jobs providing an edge over non-STEM jobs, the US economy is expected to produce over 6 million STEM job openings by 2022. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are over 209,000 vacant cyber security jobs in the US alone and the job postings have gone up by 74 percent in the last five years.
A report by the Foundation Center for Women in Business states that over 6.6 million vacancies in STEM jobs need to be filled by 2022, which outpaces the growth rate of non-STEM jobs by about 6 percent.
The BLS has projected that by 2022 there will be a huge demand for almost 3 million STEM professionals across all levels starting from R&D to teaching; design to practitioner; management functions to technologist. Therefore, to meet the demand of over 6.6 million professionals, a formal training of STEM graduates and a comprehensive commitment from the public and private sectors will be required.
"It's a passport to the world. Engineering is that base qualification that can take you anywhere." - Regina Moran, CEO of Fujitsu Ireland. - Todd Park, former CTO of the US and technology advisor for Obama
Image credit: Pexels :Vanessa Loring.
Susan’s story is a beautiful lesson for each of us to ponder over. When we strip away our children’s basic right by not inspiring or motivating them at an early age to enjoy the intricacies of STEM, its warning shines through. Our children might have the potential but we have failed to sow “the seed of interest” on time or dismissed them by saying that they are “not smart enough” for STEM subjects.
We may never know until we try! Take the case of the greatest inventor of our nation, Thomas Alva Edison, who was expelled from school because his schoolmaster thought he was “incredibly stupid”. His mother thought otherwise and homeschooled him. He attributes his success to his mother: “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me….”
These stories are just not metaphors to draw inspiration from. They are about us and how we can use these stories to learn from them; to inspire and motivate our children tirelessly; because our strength is largely dependent on our scientific foundation. However, the country that gave the world the electric light, the airplane, the computer and the likes of Apple, Tesla, Google, Microsoft among others, is way behind our major economic competitors when it comes to STEM education.
According to the World Economic Forum, China produced 4.7 million STEM graduates in 2016; followed by India with 2.6 million; while the US had just 568,000. This figure is not something to be proud of. And if this trend represents the future, there could be a major STEM crisis in the US. We might need to be dependent on other countries for our STEM workforce.
But if we are to emerge as the global leader in STEM, we must carry the legacy forward of our scientists, innovators, risk takers and makers by motivating our promising students to take up STEM early on. If we want to see them leading our economy, we need to address the challenges of this ‘crisis-like situation’ immediately.
Science has been recognised as a national priority, but educators alone cannot play the role and change the trend. Parents and policy makers have to come forward and play an equal role in inculcating the importance and merits of STEM. This is a way forward to meet the soaring demand and address the skill gap to take the economic trajectory forward.
It is a given that the US economy needs skilled STEM workforce. Also, with the soaring demand comes better wages. These are reasons enough to inspire our children and ignite their minds to come up with solutions and address the challenges of climate change, international security, domestic and global health among others. After all, they are the future, but have we thought who will be the biggest beneficiaries?
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