Why STEM Education?

Now you may ask, “why should I worry about teaching Science to my students?”  OK, let’s talk about Why STEM Education. First of all, what is STEM education? STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. In 1899 the commissioner of the United States Patent Office is reported to have said “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” in a recommendation that the patent office be closed. Thank goodness he was wrong! It would have been much harder for everyone to be here if cars were still unaffordable and planes didn’t exist! Both airplanes and cheaper cars were invented by some engineer who was just better at problem solving than the guy before him. And PERSONALLY, this would have been a bad thing, as my husband, is a Patent lawyer, protecting inventors as they create and design new items.

Encouraging you to put more time and resources into your children’s education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math is important to me. We need more engineers and other kinds of scientists! Having a STEM degree is extremely advantageous to your students.  Having a STEM education allows your children to grow into successful adults who can think and perform in the real world.

To start with, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, writes in April of this year:  The U.S. is projected to experience a shortage of Registered Nurses (RNs) that is expected to intensify as Baby Boomers age and the need for health care grows. Forbes Magazine wrote in December of 2011,  “As any technological executive in Silicon Valley could tell you, hiring engineers is one of their toughest tasks these days…. People with engineering degrees are more sought after for jobs.  But even in non-technical fields, people with engineering degrees are more sought after than liberal arts majors with the same years of work experience.”  Why is that?  Just knowing the finer nuances of working with Excel spreadsheets makes a clerical worker a better candidate in today’s technological workforce.  And if the U.S.  can’t provide the engineers? Well, companies go elsewhere!  Also, Forbes asks, “Which tech companies most rely on foreign-educated engineers? Some of the biggest names in technology. Microsoft, Google, IBM, Accenture and Cisco, have the most foreign educated engineers, according to data compiled on employment and education.  Even companies like Facebook, which are relatively young, have a sizable number of engineers educated abroad.” What’s behind the high demand for engineers? There’s an increasing demand both from tech companies and non-tech companies for highly-skilled engineers to create, build and maintain high quality systems at various levels from manufacturing to product design. But the growth in United States engineering grads has not kept pace. Many tech companies hire engineers who have been educated overseas. The U.S. H1-B Visa program was designed to bring talented “speciality occupations” such as engineers into the U.S.  On Monday, March 3, 2014 CNBC reported that, “Applications for H-1B visas allowing foreign nationals to work in the U.S. are expected to keep rising in 2014, according to one analyst. At least 160,000 applications are expected for the 85,000 available visas when the filing season opens on April 1, said Marc Klein, an immigration attorney with Thompson & Knight.” "It just shows the U.S. still lags behind other countries when it comes to an emphasis on educating American-born students in computer science, math and other areas," said Klein, who handles visa requests. "So many get advanced degrees at American universities that natural-born citizens don't receive, and (which) are needed for the hard-to-fill jobs," he said. "They go home, and yet so many of them make up the number of applications to work here."  So, basically, STEM majors are higher paid and have higher employment.  In comparing 3 different reports on the success of STEM majors, Think Advisor, which advises the investment community, notes that 29 of the 30 most employable majors are Science, Technology, Engineering and Math majors, while Forbes lists 14 of the top 15 majors as STEM majors.  Forbes notes, “ “According to PayScale's massive compensation database and job growth projections through 2020 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, these 15 college majors are the most valuable in terms of salary and career prospects. They are ranked by median starting pay, median mid-career pay (at least 10 years experience), percentage growth in pay and projected growth of job opportunities.”  The last comparison list I saw was from USA Today, where they ranked the top 10 college majors, with 9 of them being STEM majors.  So you ask huh?  14 out of 15?  29 out of 30? 9 out of 10?  What is that other great major?  It is called “Construction Management”.  Not typically a STEM major, but I can imagine that when you are working with structural engineers and architects, some background will be needed!

Start Early in Teaching Creationism

My suggestion is to start defending against evolution early.  Not by taking a defensive posture, but by teaching them the terms early and thoroughly, equipping them with arguments without them knowing it.  1 Peter 3:15 says:  but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

It was called to my attention about 10 years ago that Darwin’s Origin of the Species is perhaps the most influential piece of literature ever written.  I’m not including the Bible in this, I’m emphasizing “literature”. Think about that.  Origin of the Species is the most influential piece of literature ever written. Well, I agree. Think of any other piece of literature that has turned the world upside down and changed the world view of so many educated people.  From early on, I tried to teach my own students a Creation world view, without pounding the fact that it would refute Darwinism.  First of all, I always taught that Science is empirical.  This means that true Scientists use observations, experiments and calculations to develop theories.  And then they test their theories with more experiments and calculations to come up with reliable data to prove their theory.  In the early years I never brought up evolution, I just told them that Science is observation and recording data.  It was something that we all could do.  Science is not a theory.  Science is what is observed.

I also taught about adaptation.  They are always giving stories about animals that change colors or grow more hair.  Adaptation is God’s way of allowing us to adapt to our environment for survival, not evolution.  We can move from Southern California to Maine and after a couple of years 45 degrees would be considered “sweater weather”.  Did we evolve?  No, we just adapted.  Because if after 10 years we move back to Southern California, our sweater weather would move back to 65 degrees after a couple of years.  It is all about adaptation!  

I found it helpful to comb through all of the Creation Research Institute’s books so that I could naturally refute the theory of Evolution all the way through their education.  Plus, since I didn’t have the background, it was helpful for me to learn more about my God, the Creator.  It wasn’t until my students were in high school, when I felt confident in their personal relationships with Christ before I actually introduce them to the theory of evolution, but by that time, they could almost refute it themselves.  If they know what is true, and they know what the other side believes, they are less likely to be influenced.  And I always had available no less than 5 sources that could show them the proper arguments, if they needed them.  They know where to find truth, when it isn’t on the tip of their tongue.

Science Education - is it important? No one seemed to care about mine!

My earliest Science memories come from elementary school.  And basically 4th, 5th and 6th grade.  I remember coming in after PE, about 2:00 in the afternoon, for our last subject of the day.  We’d each pull out our Science Textbook and the teacher would have us read round robin, up and down the aisles of the class room of about 30 students.  Some students it was just painful to hear them read and sound out each word.  Some students would read it as quickly as they could, unintelligeably.  With my maiden name starting with "M", I was always seated smack dab in the middle of the room, always waiting for my turn.  I would struggle to stay awake, while my lunch digested, and my body went into resting mode after P.E.  We never did experiments, it was always about reading and retention of what we read.  Fortunately, I got put into the “Gifted” program, and I got pulled out of class after lunch 2 days a week for “special” classes.  In my case, one day was for advanced literature, and one day was for Science.

I remember the literature portion from those 3 years a little better than the Science portion, but mostly because I had to have my parents sign permission slips for me to read adult level books, not necessarily at writing level, but in content.  And for the 3 years in Science, it was all about Evolution.  I learned of the Anatomical Changes from Bipedalism, moving on two feet; to Encephalization, growing bigger brains than the animals; to Sexual Dimorphism, which meant men were bigger than women, canine teeth and brows being smaller, and developing opposable thumbs.  I also remember our teacher telling us that the next phase of our evolution is that we will likely lose our wisdom teeth, since we no longer have a need for them.  And our appendix. How do I remember this?  We drew, we sculpted, and we followed a chart.  Doesn’t that sound like art and not Science?  And I barely remember some botany and classifying plants.  THAT is about all I learned from elementary Science.

Unfortunately, my Science education was extremely sparse.  In Junior High, I only had to take one year, because I was in Student Government and Girls’ Glee.  In High School, I only had to take 2 years of Science, one year of Physical Science and one year of Biology.  In Physical Science, we didn’t even meet in a lab, just in a classroom.  And, unfortunately for me, class met during 6 period, so I continued to struggle with my body’s natural rhythm of wanting to nap while my lunch was digesting!  Some how, magically, they put me in the Honors Biology class.  They had me on the honors track for English, so they might as well put me on the Honors track for Biology.  Woo Hoo! Was I was really going to learn Science this year?  We even met in one of the laboratory classrooms and I remember being excited about that!  That year, in our lab group of 6, one person volunteered to have their blood typed while we all watched, one person volunteered to dissect the frog while we all watched, and one person volunteered to dissect the rat while we all watched.  I do remember many of the lessons on evolution, survival of the fittest, adaptation, and so forth, but since I had just become a Christian, I didn’t know how that all fit.   My college education, as a liberal arts major, included 3 Science classes:  Human Biology, Human Anatomy and Oceanography.

All in all, my Science Education wasn't that important!