How Does STEM really work, and how do we make it work effective with Cognitive Skill Development?

By Rajni Julka, India and Carla A.M. Woolf, US

?????????The initiation of “STEM” was a call to reviving the once thriving spirit of innovation. For example, as the United States had begun noticing some time ago, expertise and new ideas, predominantly in the science, medical, technology and engineering fields were experiencing, what was so brilliantly labeled a literal “brain drain” in innovation.

????????What had been distinctly noticed as disinterest among college entrance students was evident in the diminished numbers of candidates vying for placement in the STEM fields.?But what was more painfully evident was how America had lost its leading edge in devising new ideas, particularly in the Maths and Science fields. The up and coming experts were mainly from abroad, more specifically, they were hailing from the Eastern regions of India to Korea.

????????What was the cause of this effect? As the international PISA exams clearly outlined, the leading country for innovative development and discovery was exposing the lack of excellence at the high school level in the Math and Science subjects. But the more disturbing factor was that these international exams were designed to demonstrate students’ ability to perform advanced reasoning and problem-solving skills.?Americans were ranking very poorly for an industrialized nation that lawfully required all children to attend school.?But, more distinctly, innovation was a hallmark of American culture, so how could this loss for scientific discovery possibly be happening??It was a problem that needed to be solved.?The good news was that it had at least been identified. The cultural anomaly was undeniable and something had to be done about it.

????????Enter the resolution: Create a program that will refurbish independent creative thinking, and literally heal students’ lack of confidence to deeply understand the Sciences and Maths.?India and other far eastern nations were coveting these skills with passion and competence. The time was overdue to restore the younger generations’ lack of interest for pursuing career options in the “STEM” fields.?The objective was to reignite some degree of mastery for these subjects. Once the variables had been calibrated together, doing the math revealed the final quotient that Creative and Critical Thinking Skills were at an all time low. America was now the place for other people to emigrate to so that the freedom to invent and devise could be upheld. But what was India doing that Americans were missing in Education?

????????The working world has become a global community.?In the realm of STEM, it works best by international collaboration.?While the topic of Critical Thinking was the hot topic and received acclaimed support from all factions of the educational spectrum, there was an additional push to include other fields and disciplines of expertise, and so the areas of Art, Culture and Humanities was given honorable mention.?In other words, all the fields of Human Development and Intelligence applications were subject to the benefits of Critical Thinking.?The challenge was on; do whatever is necessary to endorse young students confidence to discover the wonder, as well as their own competence, for remaining engaged and thus pursuing possible career options in the “STEM” fields.

????????However, what first started out as an initiation to revive the fundamental ability to think critically across a wide spectrum of intellectual disciplines, was quickly subdued and reduced to two narrow categories: Robotics and Coding. What was supposed to be a rebirth of rudimentary Critical Thinking Skills, applicable to all fields of knowledge and all Cognitive abilities, was now defined by just the “T” in the “STEM” family of knowledge disciplines.

????????What happened, and more importantly, what caused this significant demise of STEM’s original fervor and mission, even as it continues to gain popularity? The capacity and prospects of any entity, visible or invisible, are rooted in its basic composition, establishing its rigorous definition.?It is in the roots that purpose and potential are defined, but that calculation was oddly overlooked.

????????So, what exactly are the roots of the “STEM” fields, and why are they considered to be so closely related??Indeed, if the basics of Science and Math tell us only one thing at all, they tell us that everything, that is that all formats of information, are more closely related and interconnected much more than we realistically fathom. Reducing variables to their lowest common denominator is more than just a numerical or fractional exercise.?It is the essence of genuine computational thinking that is relative to everything, particularly Critical Thinking, and even in most cases, is dependent upon non-numerical reduction, as much as deduction.

????????The missing piece for mastering the art of Critical Thinking begins its factoring applications much earlier than we have properly examined.?Critical Thinking, needed for innovative thinking and development, starts with the discovery and exploration of dirt, rocks, trees, mud and the rest of the natural world, whence all knowledge and information are derived.??In the terminology of authentic academia, the interconnecting foundation for mastering sound common sense and strong critical thinking skills begins at the preschool level.?These elemental building blocks are secured by the diversification of the Fundamental Principles of Mathematics that define everything.

????????To renew and advance education, children need both instruction for understanding the environments around them as the most primordial resource for knowledge and information, and the opportunities to exercise total independence in free play activities, specifically outdoors.?Is this the factor that gives Eastern students a head start in mathematical and scientific competence??Instead of comparing PISA scores, what may be more revealing is observing the differences in outdoor exposure with the natural elements at a young age, as well as the tight bonds of family that ensure early Emotional Cognitive Development.

????????For the most essential requisites, Early Educators must be given creative freedom, and understand that the roots of Mathematical Diversification and Natural Science are primarily cognitive processes, relevant to all fields of knowledge.?Then and only then, will keen critical thinking skills take on the elemental characteristics that intuitively generate innovation in all fields of knowledge.?What is really needed is a revival of Early Cognitive Development, and its influence on a lifetime of critical thinking, hypothesizing, reasoning and innovation across all disciplines.?Early Educators and Parents alike are called to comprehend how the Maths, Sciences and Humanities are inextricably linked in the development, collaboration and advancement of Human Progress, as much as it is relative for individual achievement.?Luckily, this is also the mindset of young adults today.?It’s time we fulfilled the promises to give children the tools they need to contribute to their future and the success of their own innovative ideas.

So, Do connect with us on our second episode "Cognitive Talk with Parents" on 17th September 2021. The details will be posted soon in one of the new post.

By: Rajni Julka