Making STEM Education Experiential for Everyone
STEM Education: Experiencing the magic on full steam
We often lament about the state of education and the lack of it’s relevance to industry. This is even more apparent in the STEM fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, which should be learnt by observing, experiencing and doing, rather than through rote learning. The worlds of academia and industry seem to be working at cross-purposes, and a solution does not appear imminent. However, we present an insightful conversation with Premprasad Mirthinti (Prem), who has worked in the industry apart from working in academia, in close proximity with Noble Laureates. He shares his thinking about STEM education, the importance of experiential learning and how he brings it all together to re-imagine experiential STEM education, while working from his picturesque home town of Sandur in Karnataka, India.
You can watch the video of the full conversation as part of ‘Unleash With FTEM‘ on our YouTube channel, and read through the below sections to catch the excerpts from the conversation between Prem and Rajiv Maheshwari, Co-Founder, From The Experts Mouth. The video is embedded towards the end of this post, and the chapters have been bookmarked, so that you can deep dive into the areas of your interest.
Sandur: Life in a small town
What are your experiences of living in a small town? What are the advantages and how do people react to it?
I lived in Mumbai earlier, but with the nature of my work, it was a challenge. It became very difficult to fit extra-curricular activities and testing of my models into the daily schedule, in light of the commuting time and the hectic lifestyle. Moreover, Sandur provides more peace of mind and a quiet environment to conduct experiments and be more creative.
I find obvious advantages of working here, in the place where I was born and brought up, and it is a great feeling to be able to come back to Ground Zero. People are often surprised that I work out of here and have also registered my company here. They may even harbour notions that a place is backward, but I do not understand how a place can be backward. In fact, Oxford, Cambridge and Hull are great seats of learning and they are all small villages.
Creating a knowledge ecosystem in smaller places will be a far more sustainable model than everyone simply migrating to cities. Even Einstein worked peacefully in Princeton, which was set up to support the innovation and research ecosystem.
Related Read: Places and Phases in the Journey of Life
Experiences with the Education Ecosystem
How was your experience with the education ecosystem and academia?
I started off as a Mechanical Engineering, and Physics was my first love. I worked in the startup ecosystem in the knowledge management space, before moving to UK and pursued further studies in laser technology. I was fortunate to work with leading minds in Hull and Manchester. Manchester was in the news those days, as it was the place where Graphene was discovered, and it was a great experience to work on super solidity, where solids exhibit the properties of liquids. This area formed the subsistence layer for the field of quantum computing.
The key principle is that we need to do fundamental innovations and breakthroughs. For instance, even though the IT industry in India is doing very well commercially, there are not enough fundamental innovations taking place. There is little progress on the hardware side, and the semiconductor industry needs a big boost.
My experiences as a tutor in Manchester, also helped shape my thoughts on education. Even the manner in which professors admit PhD students was insightful. They did not care as much about the marks and grades, but the aptitude for research.
Importance of Reading
Reading is extremely important and is the hallmark of a curious mind. We cannot achieve anything great, without reading. Our attention spans may have reduced, but I hope it is only a behavioral degeneration, rather than a genetic degradation of the human race.
Related Read: Building a Rural Library
Consumers vs Creators
We often tend to become consumers of innovation and technology, rather than creators. Of course, not everyone can and should become an innovator, but when we are utilizing the investments in specialized research and academic infrastructure, we have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that there are advances in that field.
I am now looking to create an impact beyond myself and my organization, in the field of STEM education, and by making experiential learning accessible to more people.
Related Read: Staying productive through creation
Initiatives to make STEM Education more experiential
What are the gaps and challenges in the field of STEM education, and how are you addressing them? What are the intended outcomes?
Students work very hard, but their learning is very limited. They lack experiential knowledge.
For instance, one may have theoretical knowledge of the stock markets, but you can only test your knowledge when you sit on the terminal and execute a trade.
We are falling prey to the bandwagon effect, and this is where creativity fails. We pressurize students to follow the beaten path, instead of allowing them to explore.
I am reminded of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem, ‘Where the mind is without fear’, and in the context of learning, we should not create artificial divisions between subjects, because these are man-made. Learners should be encouraged to explore and learn from different fields, even if they have not conventionally been placed under the same stream. We should allow people to discover their own true calling, and their inner love.
Beyond Consumerism: Curiosity and Creativity
How do you get people to become more curious? And to do things in science, beyond coding?
Coding is an important skill to have and the IT industry has a massive role to play. However, the jobs that we have created over the past 20 years are the excess jobs that came our way because the Western economies did not have people to do them.
Things have changed drastically, as we are in a digital world, and everything is driven by technology, automation and digital. In this context, we have to make a choice – whether we want to become servers by giving away our brains for hire, or should we harness these brilliant minds?
We need to channelize our brains and abilities in this direction. Even if all of us do not become innovators or creators, at least we have the right mindset with which we can make a difference with our approach to regular or standardized jobs.
Innovation and Discovery
Having worked with top academicians globally, what is your take on innovation and discovery? And, what are the implications in the field of STEM education?
Discovery is serendipitous, whereas innovation follows a systematic method. Discovery is an event, whereas innovation is the outcome of a process. You could be an innovator in any field, even if you are working in a courier company or financial services, as long as you are making progress towards advancement and following the process of making things better.
Of course, this does not undermine the importance of discovery, even if it is through accidental stumbling. We need both innovations and discoveries to thrive, but the two are quite different from each other. Each successive step, whether an innovation or a discovery, helps the entire ecosystem move forward.
If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.
Isaac Newton
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Process of STEM Education
How will your initiatives in STEM education fix the process?
We need to determine the kind of skills needed to develop and make progress. Consequently, I am creating a program where learners can conduct a series of projects and experiments and enhance their understanding of STEM fields through experiential learning.
The idea is that by conducting these experiments kinesthetically, the knowledge becomes ingrained in your brains and it becomes a part of you. Unlike learning by rote, you will never ever forget your knowledge if you learn using this approach. This is the core thinking behind the constructionist movement started by Seymour Papert, creator of the Logo programming language. This constructionist approach has also been followed by the popular Lego Mindstorms.
This forms the basis of my approach and I try and ensure that the learners develop imperative knowledge across all topics in science and mathematics. This principle applies to other fields as well. For instance, a Chartered Accountant knows his subject, because they have done three years of practical training, where they have acquired working knowledge, which they can never ever forget. We need a similar approach to practical and experiential education in the STEM fields by creating the ecosystem to learn by doing and through conducting experiments.
Related Read: Learning is Life
Cross-Disciplinary Learning
Learning should never be done with a singular purpose of being able to do a particular job or certain grades or marks. This approach is narrow minded and will not take you far in life. The goal should never be to score marks and to objectify the knowledge in the form of marks and grades.
This approach needs to be adopted from a very young age and we should follow a cross-disciplinary approach to learning. We need to know the basics of a lot of different fields in today’s world. We need to acquire fundamental skills through our education, rather than learn only to get marks or secure admission in a college or a job.
The Future of Education
What is the future of education and how would you like to see education evolve to help us face tomorrow’s challenges?
The primary focus should be the orientation towards the industry and not on marks. Learners should have enough freedom to quench their thirst for knowledge and curiosity. Instead of just watching educational material, for instance on Discovery Channel, they should learn by doing and play around with educational kits, robotics kits, musical instruments, sports equipment, coding, puzzles, etc.
The key point is that these activities should be undertaken to create and learn. For instance, if you are learning Python, it should not be merely to obtain a job. The question to ask is how have you applied that knowledge and what have you created using this knowledge. This is what will hold you in good stead, when some other language becomes mainstream. Also, in the context of low code and no-code solutions, what reigns supreme is your ability to create. Even if a language becomes extinct, your skills should remain as relevant as ever.
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Unleash With FTEM – Watch The Full Video
The above are excerpts from the conversation between Prempasad Mirthinti and Rajiv Maheshwari, Co-Founder, From The Experts Mouth in this episode of ‘Unleash With FTEM’
Check out the playlist of Season1 of UnleashWithFTEM.
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About Premprasad Mirthinti
Premprasad Mirthinti (Prem) is a laser technologist, who has worked in both industry and academia. He is an educationist at heart and is passionate about bringing experiential learning to the field of STEM education, across the domains of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Prem is an ed-tech expert who consults schools and colleges and enables people to learn science by conducting experiments.
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