Dr. Pamela Cosman, author and professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, San Diego, talks about how to make STEM subjects more fun and engaging for kids, and the specific power of learning STEM through fiction.
Would you call yourself a “math person”?
So many students, and even adults, will classify themselves as a “math person” or “not a math person.” This is often to their own detriment.
“It’s heartbreaking when a student quickly identifies themselves as not being a math kid,” Pamela says. “It’s normalizing the idea that it's okay to have a closed mindset.”
Instead, students should have a growth mindset when it comes to STEM — and learning in general. And storytelling can help with that.
Dr. Pamela Cosman has turned to STEM storytelling to help capture students’ attention. This approach not only makes content more engaging and motivating, but exposes more students to lessons they might have otherwise disregarded.
STEM Subjects Taught through Story
Making a lesson fun through storytelling increases the likelihood a student will want to learn more — a notion Pamela champions through her series of books.
Recalling her series inspiration, Pamela shares her experience teaching a second grade classroom about sending secret coded messages. She explained it more as a game, using the scenario of passing notes in class. She was later surprised to learn that the students chose to spend their lunch that day coding and decoding messages: A lesson they viewed as a game.
Taking a step back, she realized those same Huffman coding concepts the second graders were treating as a game were the same concepts she taught her juniors and seniors at the University of California, San Diego.
Not only were those STEM concepts more digestible for a younger student, but also for those students who might have already sworn off STEM in general. Think of how many of those second grade students, now coding messages at lunch, would’ve never found an interest in STEM otherwise.
Origami Meets Aerospace Engineering
For many students and adults, the idea of self-classifying as a STEM student or a creative student is pretty typical. But doing so, according to Pamela, can be a dangerous mindset.
This behavior can normalize the idea that it’s okay to have a closed mindset — potentially closing off that path of study forever. The reality, however, is that students don’t have to choose just one subject in which to be successful.
Creativity and STEM subjects are often interrelated. When the NASA space telescope needed to fold up into the rocket, they turned to origami artists for the solution. Pamela herself is both an electrical engineering professor and children’s fiction writer.
Don’t Wait for Fun
While narrative can help students more easily engage with STEM concepts, this storytelling approach can be taken one step further — into course design development.
Pamela shares what a typical curriculum model looks like for electrical engineering students:
- Freshmen year: Basic calculus
- Sophomore year: Differential equations
- Junior year: Basic to advanced circuit components
The problem is, however, that by junior year, you’ve lost 30% of your students. That’s because most programs wait for students to completely understand concepts before introducing them to the more fun aspects of the field.
Instead, Pamela suggests introducing students to the fun stuff earlier on. By making the experience more hands-on and narrative-driven, the students stay more engaged because it more easily connects to real world situations.
Next Steps Advice for Parents
While STEM has existed in young adult fiction for some time now, it largely consists of “feel-good” books — that is, stories that involve STEM in a positive way but don't necessarily explain the concepts.
Imagine a mystery book that incorporates coding similarly to that of the second grade class: Walking through a coding problem start to finish. Now compare that to a story about a girl engineer on a flying skateboard.
The latter may serve as painting STEM in a positive light, but it won’t help with engagement the way the former does.
Pamela’s advice to parents who want to get their students into more rigorous academic concepts: Support or create any initiative that combines STEM with storytelling — whether that be more books or in student coursework.
Guest Links
--
This episode was brought to you by Art of Problem Solving, where students train to become the great problem solvers of tomorrow.
To get weekly episode summaries right to your inbox, follow the podcast at the bottom of this page or anywhere you get podcasts. Ideas for the show? Reach us at podcast@aops.com.
