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| What are your thoughts on STEM education in schools? Good, bad and ugly? |
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| Cyberdragon:
Back in high school I remember being in the CAD class (wasn't taking it, we were in there to see their newfangled massive fridge sized 3D printer) and I spotted a thick textbook on CAD design on a table (not sure if it was the actual course book or if it was just there). I leafed through it and it was absulutely PREACHING American "standards" and pointlessly strict methods. I don't remember much (nor want to) but an example was in their electronics section they had a table of "proper" schematic symbols where you where were only supposed to use their "correct" symbols, showing a bunch of "wrong" examples regardless of whether they were technically correct or not. Can't have any of those European schematic symbols, those are bad, and better make sure your dimensions are perfect as well as all your arrows on variable components are facing the right way, lines better not cross without a dot: loop over or bust, exc. (all dumb shit like that) :palm: This is more of an example on the other end of the extreme but still leading to the same result. Just blindly following some arbitrary, not realisic or practical methods again without any real understanding or core thinking (cause whoever wrote that book clearly had none). I'd love to see their reaction to a relay logic schematic, oh dear, how dare they use the parallel line symbol for a capacitor as switches. ;D |
| laureng:
Plenty of great comments. Thanks! Dave's point about having disengaged students in Year 7 is interesting. I suppose at that level all students need to be learning science, but it's not like we expect all students to be interested in it, or see themselves having a career as a scientist or engineer. What I worry about is that we might lose kids right back in Primary, not because they don't have an interest and an aptitude, but because we just didn't engage them properly, or they only saw stereotypes they didn't fit into. Without getting into the complex arguments around the gender imbalance in computing and engineering, I think that kids to pick up on gender expectations really early on. Some people are always going to lean toward theoretical computer science, others will be more hands-on and like designing and building things, and yet others will be more into the creative and social side of the field. My research area was Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and if you've ever struggled with a badly designed user interface, you might realise that the skills needed to design really fast, clean code don't necessarily overlap with those needed to make something that looks visually good and is really responsive to the humans who are using it (with all their social and emotional complexities). RoGeorge's point on software is also an interesting one. So much of "STEM in schools" does seem to be around "coding" (whatever happened to "programming"? :o ). Specifically in terms of electronics, though, I worry that Australia is fast becoming a nation that doesn't build anything (goodbye Holden!). I think we really can't afford to lose those skills, though, as otherwise we'll become a country where we're left just writing software for whatever hardware they decide to produce for us in Asia. Innovation demands that we're still able to imagine and design new devices and platforms. And good point ntcnico - I'm still trying to work out whether teaching is really what I'd like to do full-time. I'm thinking I might land a job at a university developing and delivering programs in schools and training to teachers, which might give me the teaching without the paperwork and bureaucracy (and keep me at the cutting edge of the field). |
| Alex Eisenhut:
--- Quote from: coppice on February 16, 2020, 01:39:35 pm --- Many acronyms are dumb and annoying, --- End quote --- MADA! 8) |
| donotdespisethesnake:
--- Quote from: laureng on February 17, 2020, 11:24:34 pm --- I think we really can't afford to lose those skills, though, as otherwise we'll become a country where we're left just writing software for whatever hardware they decide to produce for us in Asia. Innovation demands that we're still able to imagine and design new devices and platforms. --- End quote --- Hmm, I believe that China are massively into STEM as well. And as they can, there are state level plans to get everything made in China, and the state funds it by investing in venture capital funds. They have learned that micro-management is not practical, so basically they use "the invisible hand" to give things a good shove in the right direction, but let entrepreneurs do their thing. Chinese tech startups spring up everywhere, and their owners become million/billionaires. So unfortunately, in the future I think China will be doing all the hardware and software in house. I don't think teaching STEM in our schools will do much to reverse the trend of kids setting career goal no higher than wanting to be social media stars. |
| I wanted a rude username:
--- Quote from: laureng on February 17, 2020, 11:24:34 pm ---not because they don't have an interest and an aptitude, but because we just didn't engage them properly, or they only saw stereotypes they didn't fit into --- End quote --- This goes well beyond gender stereotypes. In year 8 or so I remember hearing a radio ad for engineering ... the message was something along the lines of "engineers make things happen" ... but my response was, who would want to be an engineer, they're nerds. It's telling that we have a higher than usual proportion of commenters from the Anglosphere in this thread. Our culture doesn't respect engineering. It's not Herr Ingenieur or equivalent as on the Continent. Scientists are nerds. Mathematicians are autists. In my opinion, any educator who wants to inspire children in STEM will have a lot of ground work to show them the societal benefits of it, the prestige in it, the fun and coolness to be had. And that's a big ask from teachers who, especially in earlier years, generally aren't STEM types themselves. A worthy challenge though. |
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