STEM education: A sketch note and a short note ~Lalit Kishore
SHORT NOTE
Many educators and prospective employers are advocating for STEM education these days at the school level. Here, the term STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and pertains to a combination and integration of subjects that falls under these four disciplines and employers’ needs in the industry.
Essentially, STEM education requires establishing a link between science-technology—engineering-math and entrepreneurship.
It is being speculated that in the next few decades, most jobs would require students with a sound knowledge in STEM areas and specific skills such as development of critical-creative thinking skills, problem-solving skills, design thinking skills and innovation development skills, coding skills through ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) method.
Research has shown that teen-agers develop interest in STEM fields since technology, gadgets and gizmos, they get surrounded with, fascinate them. Therefore, there is a need of transition of children from user of technology to innovators in technology. Quite a few ‘entry level’ coding devices are coming into market these days to teach simple coding.
It is being suggested that education must look beyond smart classrooms towards hands-on learning of STEM through tinkering labs and experiences in upcoming technologies like virtual reality, artificial intelligence AI), gamification, robotics, automation and augmented reality.
One of the biggest challenges involved in the implementation of STEM education is to design infrastructure, curriculum, training STEM teachers in instructional, guidance and support approaches. Also, learning management systems, assessment systems, maker spaces, DIY tools, and latest computer are some of the basic aspects of the stem education that require to be put in place.
SKETCH NOTE
Comments