Sun, Sep 26, 2021 7:06 PM
Community Buy-In for Stem
My first thought on the article was that it took a while to understand where the beginning history lesson was leading to. I was expecting knowledge of STEM and instead got a page and a half long history of buses and school houses. However, as I continued to read, I understood the connection. I think if someone were trying to quickly learn about the community and STEM, they might get the wrong idea from reading the beginning of this chapter and believe it's about the history of school buses. I think using the history as a premise to lead into the main goal of the chapter might be confusing for some people.
As I continue reading, I am met with the familiar conversations of technological advancement and evolution in the workplace. Since I have learned of the impact STEM in the education system has on workplace skills, I understand the importance of linking the two, however, in this article, it does not create a bridge between the two subjects for someone to gain knowledge on. Four pages into the article, we finally begin to discuss the connection to STEM and the community.
The article does a great job at explaining the push back from the community and I wonder if the initial public awareness campaign did a thorough job of explaining exactly what STEM education is and the benefits of it for our youth since such a large portion of the community did not understand and were against it.
The article begins to express the involvement of the community as it slowly begins to comprehend how important the STEM education is for not only students, but for the community as a whole. Workers in Science and technology bring so many new products to the world and workers in engineering and math excite society with new creations of architecture. People are seeing the magnitude of how much STEM education affects the world and are showing support and appreciation by sponsoring events and having fairs to give out information.
Overall, I think the chapter shows a great change in how society views STEM and is now beginning to be a more well-known practice. I give this chapter four stars because of how it took a while to get to the point of what the chapter was about.