Using Sci-Fi To Teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math)

Hey party people,

Guess what?  I was interviewed by Education World recently on the subject of using science fiction literature to get kids interested in the four most important educational fields out there – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (aka STEM).  Education World is one of the biggest websites for education professionals out there, helping them to figure out the best way to teach kids.  I did a half-hour interview with Jason Cunningham, who’s the site’s social media editor and contributor, and we talked about all sorts of cool things related to science fiction and how it can appeal to and inspire the world’s youth.

You can read the entire article here.

Now, I’m no expert on education, kids, STEM, or pretty much anything, really.  All I have to go off of is what I experienced when I was a kid growing up.  And personally, I HATED all that STEM stuff in school!  Seriously, it totally turned me off to the idea of wanting to become an engineer or anything even remotely related to those fields.  And yet, at the same time, I’d spend hours obsessing over Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, and a bevy of other science fiction gems, all of which directly relate to STEM fields of study.

My big argument is that education happens when children actually WANT to learn, as opposed to when they are FORCED to learn.  I told Jason about an experience I had in high school where I was taking a trigonometry class where my teacher didn’t believe in calculators, so we had to learn to do trig long-hand.  I memorized enough of that junk to (barely) pass the class, and then abruptly forgot about it as soon as was convenient.  To this day I get ‘Nam flashbacks when I even hear the word “cosign.”  *shudder*

By the same token, I also took a history class where the teacher would get up and not bother to teach us from the book.  Instead, he’d tell amazing stories that detailed the real human drama of major historical events, spinning historically accurate yarns that were as good as anything you could watch on TV.  And he’d always time his lessons to end on a cliffhanger.  He had this little move where he’d check his watch, and say “Oh, we’re out of time.  We’ll continue this next class.”  And the entire class would GROAN because we were all so enthralled we wanted to know what happened next!  I personally would go home and try to look up the events he told us stories about so I could discover what happened.  This is probably why I can better talk about Napoleon’s failed conquest of Russia than I can do long division in my freakin’ head.

My point is, I think education begins with engagement.  If a kid wants to learn something, they’ll learn it!  As long as they’re engaged in the subject matter.  When you’re teaching from a boring old book, it becomes difficult to get kids engaged.  But if you take a novel, movie, or TV show kids love, and use that to teach them about certain concepts, then you actually can get them interested in learning.  My favorite argument against this is that kids don’t have long attention spans, that in our society today everything is short and flashy and blah-blah-blah.

Bollox.

That same teenager you say doesn’t have the attention span to learn will spend 200 hours playing Grand Theft Auto figuring out how to get every dang achievement in the game.  He’ll practice playing his guitar until he’s good enough to play in a band.  He’ll spend days trying to figure out how to ask out that girl he likes.  People only have short attention spans when they aren’t interested in something.  If you appeal to children’s interests, they won’t get bored.

I personally believe science fiction is a great way to get kids interested in fascinating fields of study.  So much of our technology is derived from concepts based on science fiction stories, it’s ridiculous.  Jules Vern was the inspiration for the Submarine.  Isaac Asimov was the inspiration for robotics.  Star Trek was the inspiration for the iPhone and Siri.  Who knows what humanity could accomplish if science fiction continues to inspire the world’s youth to want to figure out how to make the “fiction” a reality?