We have a disconnect in our education system. We hear “America is falling behind in STEM education.” Then, in the same moment, there are schools, in Small Town, USA, whose budgets and resources are stretched thin, who are being pressured to perform on tests, who get little time or support to encourage STEM education.
Facts. There are teachers in America’s schools who may not even know what STEM stands for. There are places where science and engineering are placed on the back burner because it’s “not on standardized tests.” There are kids who grow up thinking there is only one science career: a scientist. They never learn about engineering. They never learn about the cool jobs at NASA, besides being an astronaut. They never see that science is really all around us. They never understand that engineering is about problem solving. Where is their inspiration in STEM education?
I recently heard some statistics that the most important years in forming a student’s interest in STEM are middle school, grades 6, 7, and 8. We can’t expect kids to find passion in STEM in college. It will be too late. What can we do to fix this?
Our schools need mentors. We need afterschool programs. We need clubs like rocketry, robotics, engineering. We need more project based learning where STEM is integrated. We need more than a once-per-year science fair. We should celebrate science every single day.
We can’t ignore this problem. It’s not getting any better on it’s own. That disconnect. The one where we fall behind, but little is done to fix it. We gotta address it and do something.
It’s not just the kids that are depending on it. It’s our entire future.
