Best way to instill interest in STEM

[sarduakar2000]

Any parents can share how to instill interest in STEM? Not intending to PRESSURE him but to instill a healthy sense of appreciation, interest and curiosity in STEM.

 

[BrOwnTeddy]

Do it together with your kid.

1) You can inspire the kid, there's no better inspiration for the kid than to see the parent being able to do it even better.
2) You can guide the kid and give prompts when the kid is having issues, questions so you can resolve on the spot rather than "go ask your teacher" (99.9% the child won't ask).
3) Try to correlate things learnt during lessons with real world solutions.
4) Let them do it themselves. Its ok if they fail. With failure, comes confidence.

And lastly, DO NOT OUTSOURCE EVERYTHING TO THE TEACHERS.

 

[smallbrain]

Many people who go into STEM as elite professionals usually has someone who inspired them, like a family member, a teacher/mentor, or a good friend with such interest.

How children get inspired is, someone with a STEM background explains to them the "beauty" of STEM. This applies to many other fields, including the arts. Many top musicians usually have parents who play instruments. Rock band members usually have friends to jam with when they were young.

The most important point i want to make is, many Singaporeans go into STEM education in the beginning, but fail to reach high levels of skill because of distractions in life. Something as simple as dating can take up a lot of a person's time and mind. Most highly skilled STEM professionals spend a lot of time focused on their work. Even at home, their brain might still be thinking about work even though they are doing the laundry or baking a cake.

It is something that I find many Singaporeans cannot achieve, or many people in the world cannot achieve, because of leisure distractions. And Singapore has a lot of distractions. KTVs, shopping malls, cinemas etc everywhere.

Feel free to PM for more information. These posts have limits.

 

[sarduakar2000]

Bought a kiwico kit and started to assemble with it with him. Hopefully the various scientific theories will wow him n instil some sort of appreciation for STEM. Also planning to send him to a coding school to know more about STEM.

 

[davidktw]

I personally recommend Lego mindstorm. It is a toy, but yet it is beyond just a toy. As a guardian, the time you spent building the toy and also to educate how the virtual world bridge up with the physical world is a good introduction of how realise Mathematics and Science comes into play. The kids might find it easier to grasp from a physical standpoint rather than an abstract form. It can also extend wider and deeper into other more advance form like microcontrollers and SBC. Another more advance hobby sets will be like PI-TOP 4 or Freenove vehicle set that i knew. Bottom line is guardian involvement and introduction.

 

[BlueSponge]

Yeah. LEGO® Education sounds good I think.

 

[sarduakar2000]

I personally recommend Lego mindstorm. It is a toy, but yet it is beyond just a toy. As a guardian, the time you spent building the toy and also to educate how the virtual world bridge up with the physical world is a good introduction of how realise Mathematics and Science comes into play. The kids might find it easier to grasp from a physical standpoint rather than an abstract form. It can also extend wider and deeper into other more advance form like microcontrollers and SBC. Another more advance hobby sets will be like PI-TOP 4 or Freenove vehicle set that i knew. Bottom line is guardian involvement and introduction.

Sounds good too. But would it be better to go to a robotic class for kids in that way?

 

[davidktw]

Sounds good too. But would it be better to go to a robotic class for kids in that way?

If one can afford the time and cost to go for robotics class, why not. One shouldn’t treat it like a tuition class. treat it like an activity with ur kids, this way everyone will benefit more from the experiences playing together.

 

[Trader11]

Many people who go into STEM as elite professionals usually has someone who inspired them, like a family member, a teacher/mentor, or a good friend with such interest.

How children get inspired is, someone with a STEM background explains to them the "beauty" of STEM. This applies to many other fields, including the arts. Many top musicians usually have parents who play instruments. Rock band members usually have friends to jam with when they were young.

The most important point i want to make is, many Singaporeans go into STEM education in the beginning, but fail to reach high levels of skill because of distractions in life. Something as simple as dating can take up a lot of a person's time and mind. Most highly skilled STEM professionals spend a lot of time focused on their work. Even at home, their brain might still be thinking about work even though they are doing the laundry or baking a cake.

It is something that I find many Singaporeans cannot achieve, or many people in the world cannot achieve, because of leisure distractions. And Singapore has a lot of distractions. KTVs, shopping malls, cinemas etc everywhere.

Feel free to PM for more information. These posts have limits.

That is why I am curious how davidktw learn and retain so many knowledge

 

[Trader11]

I personally recommend Lego mindstorm. It is a toy, but yet it is beyond just a toy. As a guardian, the time you spent building the toy and also to educate how the virtual world bridge up with the physical world is a good introduction of how realise Mathematics and Science comes into play. The kids might find it easier to grasp from a physical standpoint rather than an abstract form. It can also extend wider and deeper into other more advance form like microcontrollers and SBC. Another more advance hobby sets will be like PI-TOP 4 or Freenove vehicle set that i knew. Bottom line is guardian involvement and introduction.

Lego mindstorm costs 500+

 

[davidktw]

Lego mindstorm costs 500+

How much do your future or your kids’ future worth? What is the price to illumination?

 

[davidktw]

That is why I am curious how davidktw learn and retain so many knowledge

You are thinking too hard to a simple question.

Do what you love. Love what you do.

That way you don’t even need to try to remember, you will want to remember, because you enjoy those knowledge and you want to have them with you.
I have already shared the technique so often and so long ago, but you are still asking the same old question.

A couple of persons in my life participated
- a father whom bought me my first nintendo console, and my first 2nd hand XT
- a neighbour whom show me an autocad software with a digitizer puck
- a tuition teacher whom show me games running on her EGA 286 PC
- 2 cousins whom show me the wonder of gaming on PC and exposure to a 9-pin colour dot matrix printer
- a pair of JC teachers whom imparted me with formal training in Computer Science and given me the opportunity to explore the vastness of it

Still all these are just history, the most important reason why I grasp on to it is because I wanted it, I love it. Does the reason need to be sophisticated?

Yet today I am still exploring, loved to be awed by what I didn’t know and haven’t try.

 

[yusoffb01]

watch bill nye the science guy and mythbusters together. Dont let his brain rot watching pointless youtube videos. can buy interesting science books.

In the end, also depends on his interst

 

[Trader11]

You are thinking too hard to a simple question.

Do what you love. Love what you do.

That way you don’t even need to try to remember, you will want to remember, because you enjoy those knowledge and you want to have them with you.
I have already shared the technique so often and so long ago, but you are still asking the same old question.

A couple of persons in my life participated
- a father whom bought me my first nintendo console, and my first 2nd hand XT
- a neighbour whom show me an autocad software with a digitizer puck
- a tuition teacher whom show me games running on her EGA 286 PC
- 2 cousins whom show me the wonder of gaming on PC and exposure to a 9-pin colour dot matrix printer
- a pair of JC teachers whom imparted me with formal training in Computer Science and given me the opportunity to explore the vastness of it

Still all these are just history, the most important reason why I grasp on to it is because I wanted it, I love it. Does the reason need to be sophisticated?

Yet today I am still exploring, loved to be awed by what I didn’t know and haven’t try.

Do you record notes on what you love to learn? And then write them again? Or everything is in your head once you "love" it?

 

[Trader11]

How much do your future or your kids’ future worth? What is the price to illumination?

I am sure there is cheaper way of teaching electronics?

 

[sanzhu]

Hiun Uptron school if stem

 

[davidktw]

Do you record notes on what you love to learn? And then write them again? Or everything is in your head once you "love" it?

What is there to record? Understand it, not memorise it. Once you assimilate the information into your knowledge base, digging it up is just a matter of thoughts and inference. Human remember a lot of things, by linking and inference and derivation. You don't have to always remember everything, you just need to understand how it works and apply it across things you already knew, the next you will apply the same set of logics and assumptions onto other stuffs that comes along or in the past.

 

[davidktw]

I am sure there is cheaper way of teaching electronics?

You find it, you let us know. I'm sure there is, question is how cheap do you want it to be.

https://sg.cytron.io/p-raspberry-pi-pico
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pimoroni-pico-vga-demo-base

Cheap for me, but not at the same kind of level of what you will experience with a lego set.

People that put their heart into making the lego mindstorm set for it to be fun and straight forward for kids and even low tech parents to get involved. As long as you are techie enough, you can always DIY something simple enough for your kids, but time is not cheap.

 

[Trader11]

What is there to record? Understand it, not memorise it. Once you assimilate the information into your knowledge base, digging it up is just a matter of thoughts and inference. Human remember a lot of things, by linking and inference and derivation. You don't have to always remember everything, you just need to understand how it works and apply it across things you already knew, the next you will apply the same set of logics and assumptions onto other stuffs that comes along or in the past.

But in interview, the interviewer will ask specific facts which you cannot infer....Then how?

 

[davidktw]

But in interview, the interviewer will ask specific facts which you cannot infer....Then how?

If you simply can’t relate in any ways, then just answer you don’t know, but you will find out for him if you are given the chance to do so.

But before you even do that, you have to know if there is another similar solution or product that you may have come across and discuss over it. Surely the topic can’t be out of the blue, there must be context in the conversation that lead to that question. You can always ask what the topic is roughly about. That could spring off another discussion instead of centred at what you don’t know. If it is a topic that is totally out of your knowledge scope, then perhaps you should get yourself exposed to it for the next interview.