Raising Innovators? Introduce STEM in school!

Picture Credit: kidsparkeducation.org

STEM in School is related to the spirit of innovation!

India is known as a land of innovations. There are too many innovations which were done by Indians in the ancient past. All these innovations are listed in most of the museums spread across India and also a few abroad.

We have heard about them in different Bollywood movies taking great pride when they were narrated by the protagonist of the movie indicating nationalism and patriotism.

“India has been a land of innovations for the past 5000 years. It is just that we are not good at marketing ourselves.”-Dr V A Shiva Ayyadurai, Inventor of Email, Systems Scientist

After the invasion of British, we lost our identity. We forgot our heroes and in the wake of English Education. We embraced the heroes of other countries as our path guiders. What was needed was to have feelings of Nationalism. We should have kept our own innovators on the pedestals and looked up to them.

The school textbooks also taught about the important people of the western world and our own stalwarts did not receive a right place.

The result was we started copying the west and the spirit of innovation was lost somewhere. The education system was also such that the focus was on developing literacy among the masses not the skills.

The education in school was limited to duplicating not discovering.

The way to India’s development and progress was through education. But sadly education was misunderstood for decades in India. Parents were also of the opinion that literacy was the main output of education.

“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.”

With the evolving demands of the marketplace there was a need of change in the school education system.

This change took place slowly and it is fulfilling the future needs of the children.

“My child can use a computer or a mobile better than I can but he doesn’t score good marks.”

As an administrator I have heard this statement a thousand times. But I am not able to provide a solution to it.

Reason-the parent is not willing to take the next step.

That next step is STEM-SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGY-ENGLISH-MATHEMATICS

STEM is the next step which motivates the child to proceed from being a user of technology to an innovator of technology.

This little step is not being understood by the parent community. The child gets carried away by the gadgets. He takes in a lot of knowledge but does not have the necessary space and guidance to experiment and put it to use.

Importance of STEM in daily lives

It is understood that all the children are not going to end up in professions related to STEM skills. Some are going to be artists, musicians, writers, actors, etc.

But all of them will need these skills in their daily life. A homemaker will need Math to develop and maintain a household budget, at some point they may need to repair or look after the maintenance of electrical equipments or plumbing, etc., science to question and understand certain procedures, etc.

If STEM skills are developed among the children from a young age, they will be helpful to them in many ways throughout their lives.

Future of Jobs

We are fast outpacing the STEM related jobs to the availability of STEM skilled graduates. In future most jobs will be requiring the skills related to either Science or Math.

Out of the total engineers who pass out every year almost 80 percent are not fit for any job in employable economy.

Reason lack of practical skills.

A survey suggests that only 4.6 % of the engineers have ‘good coding skills’. The other candidates are not apt at writing good codes which is the first necessity of their job.

What is the reason for such abysmal figures?

The engineering being taught in Indian colleges is mainly theory based. The students do not take their internships seriously. Only 40 % of the students complete their internships properly and only 36% work upon internships which are beyond their coursework.

So the point is that the approach to practical education is lacking right from the school level up to the engineering college level.

Hence there is a dire need of practical education being implemented in schools. The seed has to be sown here for innovations to start happening in India.

STEM inculcates Creativity

Creativity is not merely limited to Humanities and Arts. It plays a major part in Science, Engineering and Math also. If it is to create or repair, it requires imagination and then creativity.

STEM totally works upon thinking creatively. The child is given material and the liberty to create.

“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.”-Wiliam Plomer

The child will try to connect the unconnected and in the process will be creative to a great extent.

It adopts a Problem Based Approach

It is my firm belief that if we give a problem to the child, he will look for a solution.

Today’s education is all about providing problems to the children and in return seeking solutions from them. From the classroom to the environment there are many aspects which require innovative solutions. Brainstorming with the children helps them to come up with ideas.

In my experience when we put a problem before them the children come up with wonderful and practical solutions.

STEM provides this approach to the children. The different DIY and other aspects of this education provides the child with the problem. Then it gently prods so that the child tries to look for a solution.

In the process their logical and analytical skills are challenged. They question, ask, find out and research in order to find an answer for the given problem in front of them.

Resilient Kids

Resilience simply means pulling yourself up after every failure. The child learns to face failures, and then to deal with it. Not every experiment or engineering technique will be successful. They will fail but they learn to rebuild what they could not build at one go.

The process of facing failure is important in a child’s life. Failures give important lessons. Life does not involve only successes. Hence facing failure and learning to overcome it is an integral part of STEM education.

Conclusion:

Very few children in high school show an inclination and good skills in Science and Math. The future jobs will involve STEM skills. It is important to give an exposure to the children at school. Maximum students should be comfortable with these skills.

REMEMBER: Innovators will evolve with STEM EDUCATION!

Educational Apps-More harmful than Candies

Picture Credit: Kensington Mums

Every parent is aware that candies, lollipops, jellies, gems, etc. are harmful for children.

Sugar candies are harmful for the children’s growth. They do not provide any nutrition and are a source of harm for a child’s health.

The marketplace is flooded with educational apps. There is an app for reading, then another one for comprehension, then there are scores of apps for Science and Math, General Knowledge and quiz apps are also flooding the Google play store.

In the race to embrace technology, parents are rushing after these apps to ensure that their child is overloaded with knowledge and has that extra edge which the other children do not have.

Parents feel that the era of self learning has arrived and so the more the child learns the better he would stand a chance to succeed in the world.

According to a survey in June 2015, there were more than 80000 educational apps available on the internet. But the authenticity of these apps cannot be known. It means it is unsure that out of these apps how many are only educational apps. The creators have the option of categorizing the apps into education or any other field before launching.

Now let us look at the population figures. India is a country where 30 babies are born every minute. We have the largest youth force around 600 million under the age of 25. Indian youth are known for their emerging entrepreneurial skills and these skills can be developed with good education.

Now if India wants to reap this harvest and scale its economic growth, the government will focus on the education industry. Hence this industry is at number 5 in India.

Looking at the exorbitant numbers it is obvious that the software giants will want to tap in this industry to make the most out of it. Business and profits need high scaled numbers. You have a large area where you can target to get the necessary output.

The main customer out here-the parent also has the paying capacity and so they are easily lured by these apps.

One thing which I have noted over the past years is that teaching and learning is a human integrated process. Technology can never deliver what a teacher can. I am focusing on the age group between 0-15 years.

Just before the American summer vacation starts, scores of parents download the app to keep the children busy and in an attempt to keep them tuned to education so that they are able to cope well when they go out to school in September.

Why you should avoid apps?

They lead to addiction:

As quoted in the headline, they are just like candies which lead to addiction. The children like to hit the screens because they are getting something which was prohibited. By giving an educational app on the mobile you are just reinstating the fact that you can use the mobile. It won’t harm you.

Loss in concentration:

A major disadvantage is that these apps do not develop patience and concentration among the children. The children become impatient just as we are when we are using the devices.

The level of distraction is very high among the children who are frequent mobile users and the same applies to the use of educational apps also.

The app might not have educational content at all:

All the app developers choose the category –Education before uploading the content. This does not mean necessarily that the app has only educational content to view.

The developer might have sugar coated merely gaming content in the form of educational needs. And if this is served to the child then there are chances that the child might not learn what was intended to.

They Lose Trust on Human connections and rely more on technology:

The millennial workforce is comfortable with technology and they use it and explore it and overuse it to help themselves in their daily life and to make their work easier.

In this hustle they have forgotten the importance of human skills and interaction. Some of the normal skills like hitting a nail, or doing some carpentry work, etc. all is lost to this workforce.

They just rely upon the click of a button to the get the work done.

By keeping children away from apps, you can introduce them to such skills which are more informative and help in developing concentration.

Yes we need the integration of technology in education. This should not be avoided.

Someone rightly pointed out that it won’t help to escape or remain absent from the changing scenario. But yes, apps and other software and all gadgets should not be frequently given to the children.

Engaging the children in other far more meaning practical work, will develop them better as individuals.

Remember this is the age of technology and so these children are already digitally literate. They need other important skills in their lives.

Let us give them that.

How Educators can use Social Media Effectively!

Picture Credit:  Free Spirit Publishing Blog

Since the coming in of internet in our lives, learning has become absolutely free. The ocean of knowledge is overflowing and that is the reason that most people feel lost.

The water is overflowing! They are unable to store it in due time.

I don’t want to go round and round in circles.

What I mean to say is that people are clueless as to where to begin taking in the knowledge and how to utilise it effectively.

I see the same drain in the field of education. The educators are thoroughly confused about where to look and what to find out.

When they collect information they get lost while putting it to use. Because such a lot of information cannot be implemented in a class of 40 minutes a day!

Ultimately their learning is limited to the wonderful and eye catching images rolled out by www.pinterest.com.

Books are always the first recommendation for anyone when we consider learning. But most of the people are uncomfortable and do not know which is the right book that they should buy to read.

When resources are available for free, purchasing something loses value.

So here are a few points for the educators to help them streamline their activity and time on Social Media so that ultimately it results in productive output not just ‘scrolling down’ time.

Productivity hack #1

Decide a topic:

Before you hit on the internet decide a topic which you want to learn or want more information about. Think for the best suitable line which you want to type in the search engine. A line which would give the closest result to the topic that you are searching for.

When you type your query and hit search, it is obvious that the first three or four listed websites will have the necessary answer.

Right click and open the website in a new tab. Scroll through. If it is useful take the information from that website and log off.

If the information is not proper then go to the next tab that you have opened.

Read, take notes, or bookmark and exit the window.

Productivity hack #2

Note down the names of useful websites:

Another useful way to stay on track and learn a lot in a short time is to note down the names of the websites which you found useful and want to return to again for some enhanced learning or a revision of ideas.

This hack really saves a lot of time and is very productive.

Each time you press the search engine for information it produces different results. Hence you might have to browse different websites for the same piece of information that you want.

Remembering the websites and visiting them again for information helps. Moreover not all websites have free giveaways like worksheets.

Generally the teachers browse internet for worksheets. So it would be great if you note down the names of websites from where you can collect information each time that you log on.

Productivity hack #3

Blogs are also helpful:

As far as education resources are concerned, I have found blogs to be more useful than websites. There are different hard and soft topics in education upon which educators need an advice.

 Brainstorming, peer challenges and other practices for which you need help and reading online is something which proves very useful.

A teacher can browse through many sub topics similar to the main topic and arrive at a conclusion to take a decision which she would want to implement.

Let’s take an example. There are numerous concerns related to behaviour among the children. There is no written rule which ensures a solution for such concerns.

The best way is to keep applying and see what works with the children. At this time lots of ideas and suggestions are required from which a particular idea might be used. 

Productivity hack #4

To-do-list: It really helps if you sit with your to-do-list when hitting the Google search button.

We use these lists in our day to day life. They are really helpful in keeping us focussed towards our work. Similarly keep this list handy and stick to it. It saves time and your work will be over soon.

Without a to do list, many a times educators just keep searching. There are around 2 billion educational websites. Imagine the amount of material available for an educator. Filtering information through this lot and coming up with the necessary amount of information might be a difficult task and it can lead you astray.

Productivity hack #5

Do not use your mobile:

It is better to use a laptop when you are doing some professional work. Mobiles are not very good. The notifications keep you distracted and so the amount of time taken to complete the work is more.

Some features do not work on a mobile, the screen is small, at times material cannot be downloaded, some handsets do not support MS Office, so formatting creates an issue, etc.

And extremely important is stay offline on mobile while working. You will complete the work in less time.

No notifications means no distraction. 

These are some of the tips that I use while browsing the internet for learning. It saves time and gives a feeling of accomplishment because I complete the work.

There is no waste of time only productivity.