Education Self-Help Sample -
Bridging the Stem Divide
This sample examines the structural and social factors contributing to the STEM divide in underserved communities, offering realistic, community-centered approaches to increase participation, retention, and long-term opportunity in STEM education.
Introduction
Merriam-Webster simply defines an educator as someone skilled in teaching. Such basic parameters leave much to be conceptualized by the individual. This leaves open for interpretation that can be far from the actual concept and art of educating. Without intergenerational collaboration between educators, students, and the community (parents, local businesses, etc.), education is stifled by a lack of discernment between applied knowledge, awareness, exposure, and information. Most education in the United States is based on an antiquated system that gathers limited amounts of information and gives it to our children. Our system creates text for teachers to teach from, which not only limits the professional governance of the student body but also the student who desires to gain knowledge.
Science is the basis on which we learn to observe, question, engage, and obtain knowledge. We are born with an innate curiosity about the world around us. Science is not an anomaly that only a particular subset of people can understand, grasp, or excel in. It is for everyone and in everyone. In fact, without a diverse group of people, looking at things through different lenses, we all miss the value of collective genius. If this is a fact that we are all aware of, why do we teach in a way that is counterproductive to the advancement of our society as a whole? If we are curious creatures by nature, why don’t we teach with style in mind, ensuring we include all facets of society?
Over time, my goal has evolved into a mission that has been part of cultures for centuries. The STEM Impressionists Program embodies the concept of Ubuntu. If you are not familiar with the word Ubuntu, it’s okay. I learned it while sitting in one of many seminars where a South African man enlightened my academic mind toward an inclusive concept. You may find the idea easier to access if you watch the documentary about Michael Jordan and the Bulls’ six straight championships. Nelson Mandela translated Ubuntu as “I am because we are.” The non-American idea is that we cannot implement significant change in our local or global society without togetherness. The focus is not on the individual but on the collaborative effort of many toward greatness.
Ubuntu is always at the core of my actions, thoughts, and deeds when interacting with others. A way of being in the world and contributing simultaneously. It is the delicate balance between giving to others, sharing the joys of being a member, and receiving as a community member. For example, your child achieves distinction in a sport. You are proud, as if the accomplishment was yours, but it is essential to remember that the bulk of the achievement was earned and belongs to your child. The community celebrates and supports the child in this endeavour because it fosters the child’s independence, self-determination, abilities, skills, leadership, etc. We are doing this because we are bonded, we give back, and our community unites us. As educators, we are working with our students in an intergenerational bond, as a mutual commitment to build their skills into the opportunities that will transform their lives. This brings joy to students, parents, and other participants and creates a vibrant, self-sustaining educational community.
My goal with these pages is to spark the interest of passionate educators committed to 21st-century development of educational subject matter and transformative teaching practices. Educators know that part of teaching is sometimes learning at the same time or being taught something by someone you are supposed to be teaching. I know little about coding, but I don’t need to because my kids do. The collaborative nature of our community allows me the freedom to learn alongside the students, just before they do. Innovation and creativity are at the intersection of knowledge and the willingness to take risks into the unknown. A very Star Trek-type ideology. They went to worlds unknown, believing that whatever challenges they encountered could be overcome. We are similar explorers, but our world is STEM!
Chapter 1 - The Beginning is Curiosity
I loved Lego when I was a child. There were hours I spent putting the pieces together in puzzling ways to create the object pictured on the box. Back then, Lego geared its kits specifically toward boys. Often, I couldn’t figure out what I should do with them. With no alternative, I built houses, bridges, and cars, although I wasn’t satisfied with what I was making. The world offered limited possibilities, but my household had no limits. My mother was an educator, and my father was an Engineer. You would automatically think that my father’s profession would be where my scientific advancement stemmed. If this is what you believe, you are totally wrong. Like the world, my father could not help but make connections that my brain naturally leaned towards. I would ask him questions, and his technical jargon would be well beyond my years of comprehension.
My father was an engineer for GE and IBM. He was an avid reader, constantly ingesting information. We would talk about things in the world. When we weren’t talking, we were watching football together. That was when the Dallas Cowboys were a good team. One day, I was sitting on the floor, and my father was reading the Wall Street Journal, chewing his cud. I remember being interested in Edward Demmings and questioning my father about “control stuff.” He would try to explain, but his words couldn’t satisfy my curiosity. It was so sophisticated that it went over my head, and I could not connect it myself. At that time, there was a lack of understanding that girls express their talent differently than boys do; he did not recognize the engineer in me.
Crafting was my saving grace, which I did with my mother constantly. She taught me how to be an engineer. Not by saying but by doing! For hours on end, we would work on one craft or another, some crafts I wish, to this day, that she would have taught me. I don’t know how to knit as well as she does, but as an adult, I could knit because it is a form of coding (something my students are well skilled in). My mother and I were trained in different crafts. There was a crossover and individual choice, just as there is a variety of educators in a K-12 formative experience. I was tall, and the clothes weren’t long enough for me. I didn’t enjoy sewing. It was functional and would serve me well throughout life. Mom modeled curiosity, creativity, and risk-taking—the skills that made me an engineer, even though I didn’t yet realize it.
We would learn together. Our crafting interests differed, so we did our own thing at home. I learned découpage, needlepoint, crochet, and ceramics, among many other things. My mother helped me attend all kinds of classes. She’d sit on one end of the couch, knitting, I’d sit on the other end, hooking rugs, and we’d ask each other, “What do you think about this?” It was an effective combination of individualized and collaborative learning; it was how we bonded. It was this experience that became the foundation for how I interact with my students as a teacher.
Growing up, I never considered that I should have been in STEM. I did not know that STEM and my activities were one and the same. However, after becoming a Family and Consumer Science (FACS) teacher, it finally hit me: What do engineers do? They solve problems. I solved problems, too, only with materials like fabric. Did that make me an engineer? Yes, a textile engineer! No one had recognized my strengths or discussed my skill-based career options with me in the past. I could have been a brilliant engineer, but I didn’t have the self-awareness to see it, nor the guidance to pursue it when I was young.
Too often, our society doesn’t recognize girls’ talents—especially when considering other contributing factors, like race, sexuality, and economic disparity—but we all pay the price for that exclusion. When it comes to STEM, we need everyone in the room. The differences in background, religion, race, sexuality, and economics will help us quickly fill in the gaps where needed. As people, we may categorize each other, but no matter what category we place others in, we all live on one earth.