My first professional connection to STEM was early in my education career as an elementary teacher when I was reminded of its importance. Luckily for me and my students, teaching STEM came naturally to me. The concepts align with my philosophy on how subjects should be taught (interconnected). Additionally, they show how students learn best (through active engagement).
Students should experience learning. A STEM education offers countless experiential learning opportunities through experiments, inquiry- and discovery-based methods, and projects. It teaches students to solve real-world problems that make learning interesting, relevant, and fun.
My Story as an Educator
As an elementary educator, I was charged with teaching all academic disciplines. Using a project or problem as the central base for teaching made it easy to connect all disciplines and teach them through the project/problem. Reading, writing, and discussing the project/problem made sense to students because classroom lessons were interconnected to the same central point.
While serving as a mathematics coach, I developed and ran the school’s first-ever Math Bee Competition. This allowed students to demonstrate their advanced numeracy skills. Students felt a sense of community being part of a group of like-minded peers. Additionally, they felt a sense of achievement in applying their math skills during the rigorous competition.
As I progressed through my career, my connection to STEM shifted. My professional role changed from schoolteacher to district administrator and later to deputy superintendent. On the district level, my connection to STEM was in an oversight and support role. I ensured resources and support were in place to assist teachers, coordinators, and directors operating STEM programs.
In my current role as Commissioner of Education (Chief State School Officer) for the Virgin Islands Department of Education, my connection to STEM has once again evolved. I now have the responsibility of creating the vision and leading the transformation of a public education system. This prepares 21st-century learners to successfully live, work, and thrive in a 21st-century world. STEM remains at the core of my vision to transform the Virgin Islands’ public education system as it relates to what students are taught and how they are engaged in educational experiences.
My Modern Approach to Education Transformation
One afternoon, my nephew, three years old at the time, was in my family room playing with his Lego blocks. In passing, an adult family member told him in the local, colloquial dialect, “Zyan, I see you is a Lego Man.”
My nephew, very articulately and without hesitation, responded, “No, I am an engineer.”
Everyone in the home erupted in tear-inducing laughter. My nephew is known to often surprise us with his extensive vocabulary. However, this interaction took the cake and astonished us all.
One of the great philosophers whose work greatly inspires me, John Dewey, once said, “If you teach today’s children the way we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” I echo these sentiments and wish to add, If we speak to today’s children the way we spoke to yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow. With this in mind, I have identified some of the primary sources that have influenced my approach to transforming schools, communities, and, ultimately, the educational outcomes of students.
Influences on My Teaching Approach
- Professional experience teaching and leading in education.
- Research on the positive effects of experiential learning
- Research on the positive effects of project/problem-based teaching
- Research that indicates a STEM education is essential for 21st-century students to be successful in work in the 21st century
- Personal, real-world experiences
According to the US Department of Education (2015),
Every child is imbued with a sense of curiosity and wonder. They are born scientists, engineers, and creators ready to discover the world at every turn. The goal of education should be to sustain this engagement throughout a lifetime. We need our partners in both the public and private sectors to take up the challenge and help us answer these and other questions: What types of active learning strategies work best for young children? How do we encourage curiosity and creativity that lasts a lifetime? What roles do computer science and computational thinking play for young children? How do we best leverage technology in the classroom? Most importantly, how do we prepare educators?
Future Work Skills
Where do future careers lie?
McKinsey February 2021 Data: Manual Labor 4 percent used in the future
COVID-19 has made it glaringly evident that technology, artificial intelligence, and remote work will increase drastically by the time today’s children make up the workforce. According to McKinsey Global Institute (2021), workers must learn more technological skills to move into occupations in higher wage brackets. The research suggests that workers who earn the highest wages will spend 26 percent of their time applying technical skills in comparison to 4 percent of their time spent applying physical and manual skills and 6 percent of their time applying basic cognitive skills.
The Future of Work Is Dependent on Workers Having a STEM Education
Now is the time to create STEM communities and provide every student with a STEM education. The pandemic has afforded the opportunity to reset, redesign, and re-engineer education systems. The greatest challenge is predicted to be uprooting cultural norms and mindsets and enduring the process of change. Without a doubt, change is uncomfortable. It naturally induces feelings of anxiety and stress, as it may require new attitudes and mindsets toward teaching practices, modes of instruction, student engagement, and learning as a whole.
Embarking on a system-wide implementation of STEM education, which serves as the first mode of instruction for students, is no simple task. It requires years of consistent knowledge-sharing until full implementation. There is countless supporting research that suggests:
- a STEM education is essential for the 21st-century learners of today to be successful in jobs of the future;
- and parental engagement and community support are major factors contributing to student success.
Where should STEM be experienced?
Students should experience STEM everywhere—in school, at home, and in their communities. Providing “all students” access to STEM increases the likelihood of all students receiving a STEM education. Providing access to “parents and the community” increases the chances of students receiving a sound STEM education. Additionally, it increases their chances of a well-rounded STEM experience.
The US Department of Education, in its article entitled, “Communities Come Together to Support STEM Education,” stated that “cultivating a creative workforce that is ready to step into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)- related fields is vital. Students need technical knowledge in these subjects, as well as critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills; these tools will prepare them for tomorrow’s jobs… A STEM learning ‘ecosystem’ creates connected learning opportunities for students throughout their community, both within and outside of school.”
The Language of STEM
Parents and community members must speak the language of STEM, but they must first know it. Providing access to STEM for adults around children ensures they have the education and resources needed to assist students. It also opens the door for teachers, parents, and community members to engage students in STEM-based lessons and activities.
Providing social studies teachers with access to STEM training and resources can open a level of insight that teachers had not previously considered. Educating parents and community members on STEM will build their confidence and eliminate fear around STEM. They will feel empowered and like partners in the education of their children, which is a goal we strive for in education.
Providing access is the key to breaking barriers and shifting mindsets around STEM education. All students must learn through a STEM-based approach to succeed in jobs of the future that do not yet exist.
This information is crucial to educators, students, and communities because it requires everyone’s commitment and collaboration to transform education through STEM. All stakeholders must understand that STEM is the essential ingredient in a 21st-century learner’s educational experience and must be treated with importance.
Consistent STEM Implementation Is Key
The solution to the challenge of not enough children having a STEM education is to implement STEM throughout the entire education system. Develop a strategic plan for a systemic integration and remain consistent in implementation. Regardless of political influence, change in administration, or education leadership, the plan must be executed with fidelity to the end.
Involve the community so that they understand the importance of STEM education and understand their role in the big picture to educate 21st-century learners. Provide them access to information, programs, and STEM services so that they have the resources and feel supported in the learning process. Technology is a powerful tool to help educate the masses. Online platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams allow multiple persons to participate simultaneously. Recorded information can be replayed as many times as needed to gain an understanding of the information. The use of technology helps to ease the learning process and supports the various schedules of adults in the community; they log on at a time that is convenient for them.
Committing to Increasing STEM Access
It is evident that my approach to STEM has evolved. It began with me as a practitioner in the classroom, then as an overseer and support to other practitioners, and now as a system-wide implementer and advocate.
The moment that expanded my understanding of the importance of STEM in my community occurred some years ago due to several experiences. Given the aged infrastructure of our beautiful islands, we experience seemingly insurmountable safety and quality-of-life problems, such as regular power outages and deficiencies in the foundational integrity of roads and buildings, to name a few. Many of our infrastructural challenges have required engineers and/or a variety of other skilled professionals, who, at the time, would fly in from neighboring Puerto Rico and/or Florida. This resulted in residents having to wait with uncertainty and anxiety.
Progress in Recent Years
We have made tremendous progress in recent years by increasing the number of skilled workers in the Territory. This has largely occurred as more professionals relocate back home or new people reside. As Commissioner of Education, I remain committed to systemically implementing STEM using a system-wide approach to provide access to all students, persons, and organizations supporting children’s education. The K–12 role in this movement is to inspire students to explore careers in STEM by allowing them to learn through STEM-based projects and problems. A goal is also to increase post-secondary opportunities in STEM for students.
The Only Way to Go Is Up
We are twenty-one years into the 21st century, and STEM education is essential for 21st-century learners. I have seen where STEM has created some of the most perseverant problem solvers and has proven to be essential to students’ success. The COVID-19 pandemic has, in many ways, leveled the playing field and identified how our current education systems are not serving our students. The only way to go is up. Let’s build new systems of education with the necessary content, instructional methods, and educational experiences that are pertinent for students to be successful in post-secondary education, in the workforce, and in life.
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity
This is an opportunity that may never come around again in a lifetime. I encourage all educational leaders, legislators, education board members, labor leaders, teachers, parents, students, and members of communities to be courageous and support a system-wide infusion of STEM in schools across all grade levels and to commit to doing your part.
I leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the great Abraham Lincoln: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Join the movement to transform today’s learners into tomorrow’s leaders. Our 21st-century learners are depending on you.
About the Author
RACQUEL BERRY-BENJAMIN
Hailing from the beautiful United States Virgin Islands, Racquel Berry-Benjamin serves as the Commissioner of Education (Chief State School Ocer) at the Virgin Islands Department of Education. As the youngest education professional to serve as Commissioner in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), Cmmr. Berry-Benjamin has a bold and future-facing vision of transformation for public education in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
With a well-rounded twenty-year career in education, Cmmr. Berry-Benjamin has a thorough understanding of how students learn best, what quality teaching and effective school leadership look like, and the functions of educational systems after serving as a paraprofessional, teacher, mathematics coach, district administrator, state director, part-time professor, deputy superintendent, and Commissioner of Education.
Coupled with her professional experience is her personal experience of matriculating through the Virgin Islands Public Education System and her experience as a mother of children who also went through the public education system in the Virgin Islands.
In Cmmr. Berry-Benjamin’s chapter, you can expect to learn about providing students, education professionals, parents, and community members access to STEM education to transform educational systems and ultimately achieve the desired educational outcomes for our students. Her hope is that as a result of this work, educational systems and communities transform to provide everyone in the community access to STEM so that students get a well-rounded 21st-century education to thrive in the 21st-century world.
