For the November Mini-Hack held last week, Youth CITIES was visited by the Events & Logistics Coordinator of the Cambridge Science Festival, Sung Kim.
The Cambridge Science Festival (CSF) is a multifaceted event that offers STEM-related lectures, exhibitions, concerts, workshops, and more over a ten-day period at a variety of locations. CSF seeks to make science accessible, interactive, and fun by highlighting the impact of STEM in all our lives.
Sung Kim posed the following problem to the students, teachers, and entrepreneurs present: How do we best engage the teenage (12-18) audience in STEM?
Throughout the course of our brainstorming, one thing became quite evident – the teenagers who came to CIC to participate in the Mini-Hack needed no extra push or prodding from adults to be fully engaged in discussing technology.
The students were very fairly clear that the most important part of engaging other students in STEM, or any activities for that matter, is to be sure that they are fully aware of the opportunity. And, when communicating or presenting a STEM opportunity to them, relate the activities to their existing passions like sports, food, art, or robot battles (of course).
Now, granted, the middle- and high-school students in attendance already had interest in science and technology. They were all current or former members of the McCall Middle School Technology & Engineering Club, something that many Boston-area students do not have the privilege of experiencing. That does not mean, however, that students at other schools cannot develop the same love for STEM. They simply require simiilar exposure and inspiration from enthusiastic influences (teachers, parents, and/or peers).
Sung Kim and CSF will be successful if they can identify and support “champions” of STEM at schools all around Boston. Like the teachers operating McCall’s engineering club, champions must be committed leaders whose enthusiasm is, in effect, contagious. CSF can help these change agents by developing content in context that will spark students’ curiosity and get them searching for answers. (See an example of how ESPN uses sports to introduce science to young viewers.)
Directed enthusiasm is inspiring and provides a rally point for others, sometimes a whole school. Just ask the chess players at Intermediate School 318 featured in a new documentary film. In this case of success, chess is the medium, but it could just as easily be STEM or entrepreneurship…which makes me wonder to what great heights Youth CITIES can go.