To put it bluntly, science and technology is very important. Without it, we wouldn’t have computers, iPhones, GPS, Facebook, and many other things we rely on today. However, it’s really disappointing at the same time to see students discouraged from pursuing STEM (Science/Tech/Engineering/Math) subjects.
Having been a high school student myself, I noticed that students don’t dislike STEM — they reap the benefits of modern technology every day. However, classes don’t quite engage students in the right way.
You don’t learn to ride a bike by reading a textbook, watching a video, and then taking AP Bike Riding, do you? You learn to ride a bike by actually riding it.
It’s the same thing with science and technology. It’s all about inquiry — having a question, and finding an answer to it. Newton famously sat under an apple tree. An apple fell on his head. He asked: “Why does the apple fall to the ground?” Well, he came up with the theory of gravity to explain it. He didn’t find the answer in a textbook somewhere.
We need to give students opportunities to get hands on experience with the STEM fields — to explore the creative aspect of science.
I transferred to Interlake High School in my senior year and joined the robotics team. Being on the robotics team lead me to a realization:
We build libraries for people who love books, sports fields for people who love sports, shopping malls for people who love shopping, and so many other places for people with different passions. Why do we do it?
I offer three reasons. You can interpret it your own way, and it’s fine, because it’s up for interpretation. There are definitely more than three reasons for why we do them. But these three reasons illustrate what I’m trying to say.
- It offers us physical SPACE. Space is important, by all means. I’m sure most of you have a dining room to eat, a bedroom to sleep, a family room to play, etc. Space is important since it sets us in the mood for what we want to do. Likewise, each space mentioned above gets us in the mood for the activity associated with it.
- It offers us ACCESSIBILITY. If I want to read the world’s books, I may not have the money to buy all of the books I want to read. Nor might I have money to build a regulation-size sports field in my backyard. We build these places so that everyone can get access to it — by doing this in a “potluck” fashion, we gain more than we put in.
- It builds a COMMUNITY. Book clubs, sports teams, etc — they all benefit from a community that supports and inspire each other.
Most of the time, you have the stereotypical “geek”, “nerd”, “mad scientist”, whatever, with his (or her!) workshop or laboratory in his/her garage, basement, etc. This doesn’t contribute to accessibility or a community.
We need to build a STEM community center to inspire students to learn more about science and technology. Somewhere where a student can take a project idea, and bring it to reality by getting access to resources, equipment, tools, and materials that he/she would need to do so.
That’s what we want to do here at StudentRND. Build this STEM community center and inspire students to learn more about science and technology.
We have finally gotten our Workspace running as planned. Summer 2011: expansion. And we won’t stop until we have one of these in every city in the USA — just like how we have a library in every city in the USA.
To do this, we need your help. We need:
- A space for summer 2011! (We’ll take what we can get!)
- Volunteers
- Interested and disinterested students to visit and use the workshop
- Money
Inspired? Contact Us, and we’ll let you know how to help.
– Edward Jiang, CEO and Founder