STEM application an educational move in the right direction

Mar 10, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Permit me to laud the Guyanese school system on adapting the STEM Mathematics app into its school curriculum (Stabroek News, February 28, 2017). As a former educator and speaking from an academically correct stance, this is a move in the right direction, and if continued would augur well for the future of Guyanese youth, regardless of gender. The benefits of the STEM program is borne out in the movie Hidden Figures, that despite being the story of how three African American women actually helped launch NASA astronauts into space and bring them back safely to Earth speaks to us from so many angles.
Besides being set in the 1960’s an extremely significant decade in American history, yet it still carries a message that is significantly relevant to present day educational systems. It is much more than a feel good history film. The movie highlights not just the struggles of women in the NASA Space Program, but also brilliantly shows the value and application of their education, the reasons underlying the importance of educational degrees, the importance of regular library contact to learn new things and applying them to real world situations along with a personal and individual responsibility to prepare for the future. This movie merits being seen and should be applied to the learning initiatives in all schools, to allow students to see why they need to be serious about their education and the vision for their dreams of success.
Girls will equally take away many lessons from the movie, especially how history was changed not merely by protests , but by going to school to gain advanced degrees, being familiar with the laws of the land, displaying proper elocution in the absence of profanity, the relevance of family unity and support and setting goals that everyone aspires towards. Another key of prime importance is to behave and act as if there is intelligence, cultural pride and self-respect.
Throughout the movie there are multiple scenes where, working with many types of math and integrating mathematical equations that sometimes had to be created, and following discovery and recognition of their analytic abilities, the women were called computers. These achievements bear out the fact that girls and women have the skill sets and analytical abilities to function in complex and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) areas that demand creativity and innovation. Hidden Figures also celebrate mathematics in a special way as instruments for making the world better.
What separates STEM from the traditional science and math education is the blended learning environment and showing students how the scientific method can be applied to everyday life. Mathematics cross gender and color lines and can be utilized by anyone who chooses to learn its ways. Mathematics is the only truly universal language, symbolic of the power of education, as evidenced by the chalk being handed from one person to another, a recurring motif in the movie. An insufficiency of mathematical skill and understanding affects one’s ability to make critically important educational, life, and career decisions.
STEM programs that are being applied in the educational cultures of schools is not only career necessary but vitally important. Time will tell. The figures will no longer be hidden. President Obama from very early in his administration made STEM education a top priority, as he believed every student deserved access to a high quality education in STEM for their future as well as the future of the nation. Taking a similar stand was the British Government who said that if the U.K was to remain a world leader in research and technology then a future generation that is passionate about, and skilled in, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is needed. The application of the STEM program in schools in Guyana will tell its own story in the future, but at least they are on the road and headed in the right direction.
Yvonne Sam

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