The article that I am choosing to write about is out of the February 11th, 2010 edition of the Minnesota Daily. The article is on the front page and is titled "New STEM Center to Focus on Educational Process." The article is about how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (collectively called STEM) need to take a more central role in education nationally, and recently the University of Minnesota added a center to study issues in STEM education. The article focuses on the fact that teaching science related topics is hard and educators need to come up with more effective ways to teach students. The problem I have with this article is that it is non-collaborative between the sciences and the humanities (the basis for this class). It uses a scientific approach to solve a scientific problem. Also, the science classes that are currently being taught in middle and high school are completely independent of other topics learned. In no way did I ever experience interdisciplinary learning in a STEM related class in high school. The purpose of my letter to the editor is to propose an overhaul to the way subjects are taught in middle and high school, not just science subjects.
Letter to the Editor:
In response to your article titled "New STEM Center to Focus on Ed. Process," I believe that the newly created STEM education center is missing the point on educational processes and current focuses of its research. You say "science, technology, engineering, and mathematics need to take a more central role in education nationally," but with this quote I think that you are missing the point. STEM subjects do not need to take a more central role (I think they ARE in the center already), but rather interdisciplinary studies need to take a more central role. Focusing on science-based education is like teaching someone to catch a fish, but not how to reel it in. It is only half the battle. Teaching a student to take science related information and apply it to life problems and questions creates a student that is conscious to a world outside of science. I think that STEM should include a 'H' in its name designated for teaching the humanities, because by addressing an issue using both scientific and humanistic angles, students will truly be better suited to create an "economically stable nation." Just a suggestion that STEM should do some research on.
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Hey Paul,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of interdisciplinary studies but I'm not sure your audience will immediately recognize what you mean by "interdisciplinary"; I'm guessing you mean both science and humanities, but I see it more as a what STEM is actually trying to achieve. Supporting your stance more clearly with an brief, yet specific example of how the humanities would add context to STEM subjects - doing this instead of everything with from the fishing analogy on - would probably add a lot more weight to what you're saying