The Questions We Ask Define the Path We Take in Life
Boredom is a major challenge to STEM education. Not many people have a natural love for mathematics and or a God-given inclination to understand science. My son was able to sort his numbers 1-9 backwards and forwards by 8 months. I am a mathematician and recognized understood the significance of this – numbers are an ordered set and having the ability to sort them forwards and backwards presented a high-level mastery of concept. I have been able to nurture my sons love for numbers. Most children don’t receive this, and especially children who come for socio-economically disadvantaged situations.
If you can’t reach a child, you can’t teach a child. Unfortunately, not every child is exposed to the right STEM experience that they can connect with. Student boredom is a major challenge for many teachers and research suggests that children lose interest in STEM education around 12-13 years of age. Once a child becomes bored with math and science, their mind shuts down and starts to focus on other things that they can easily connect with.
Driving to Success is a self-contained STEM module, which combines a wooden car kit, with a rigorous workbook that takes them through a series of experiments. The car kit comes with screws, paint, stickers, paint brush and small screwdriver. The workbook focuses on teaching algebra and other fundamental math concepts, e.g. graphing through a plethora of experiments centered around racing the car.
There is nothing more competitive and fun than a car race.
This leads to the desire to explore and understand the algebra, graphing, and other STEM topics through this hands-on learning exercise where students work with one another to share their ideas and questions.
We start with creativity. The first step is for each student to design and construct their own car. By having the students design the car, we are allowing them to unlock their creative energies and take ownership of their education. It is their car; they make the decisions that will dictate success or failure. The combination or creativity and ownership unlocks the intrinsic motivation to achieve.
Intrinsic motivation is an inner drive that propels a person to pursue an activity, not for external rewards, but because the action itself is enjoyable. In other words, a person is motivated by the fun, challenge, or satisfaction involved with an activity, not for an outside outcome, pressure, or reward. Our STEM Modules unlock children’s intrinsic motivation because they are having fun, while learning.
Experiencing fun and joy while learning math and science creates the intellectual context from which questions can be drawn. Children who don’t understand how STEM connects to the world around them are a disadvantage. Driving to Success is designed to help the children think and reflect about what they are doing and thus connect math and science concepts to their everyday lives.
A child’s brain is a sponge that soaks up all that it is exposed to. We expose them to math and science concepts at a young age. Our STEM Projects are designed to provide complexity, without difficulty thus enabling the students to see how math and science are intertwined in their everyday lives. These easy-to-do, hands-on activities will enable them to make learning 3D. They will design, build, experiment, record, and calculate; thus, drawing their own conclusions and plugging the right questions into their brains. With the right questions driving or directing one’s life in a success direction is easy.