Published on 27.10.2021 under Advisory, STEM education
15 years of STEM funding
A review and outlook with Magdalena Hein, responsible for the MINT area and member of the management team at matrix
How does successful STEM funding work and how not? Which synergies between school and extracurricular education can be used? What has to happen for concepts and measures to have a lasting effect? Magdalena Hein gives us a little insight into experiences from more than 15 years of STEM funding.
Dear Magdalene,
Many matrix projects focus on promoting STEM skills. How come?
STEM education is essential in order to be able to face societal challenges. MINT can be found in so many topics and in the world that surrounds us. Scientific and technical knowledge is knowledge that can be used in everyday life and that can help to understand the world better and to find one's way around it. Our goal is to give as many people as possible access to STEM education so that they can participate in social processes and decisions. If you have had the opportunity to deal independently with STEM phenomena early on in your CV, then you will also dedicate yourself to social challenges out of your own motivation. A good example of this is the Fridays for Future movement: through MINT knowledge, young people have discovered the relevance of this topic for their future and ultimately take to the streets for their convictions, their interests and their goals.
matrix has been involved in STEM promotion and education for over 15 years and has gained a lot of experience during this time. What works and what doesn't in STEM promotion and education?
In 15 years we have had a lot of experience, worked with different partners and of course also seen what doesn't work: isolated solutions and individual measures that come to nothing. In MINT funding, it is important to focus on the long term, to contextualize offers and to work together in a network. For example, we are also a member and co-initiator of the service point MINT networked.
What does contextualization in STEM education mean in concrete terms?
Let's take an example: when a programming course is offered, it is helpful to put these knowledge and skills in a larger context in order to make their meaning visible. For many young people it is important to know: Why am I doing this? For what is this good? What can I do with it?
When programming a robot, the question of which socially relevant task it can then take on, for example pollinating flowers. Then students program: inside out of the motivation to ensure the production of food. A course that conveys knowledge about the weather is gaining relevance through the “We fight climate change” approach. The context brings a goal into focus for which it is worth investing time and looking for solutions. Even a subject like mathematics, which is often deselected, is relevant for a variety of subject areas and beyond traditional teaching. How is the world population developing, how is the financial market? How are survey results evaluated and how are reproduction and incidence numbers to be read - all of this is mathematics. It is important to show children and young people how they can use STEM for themselves, their tasks, topics and areas of interest.
DCan sustainability in STEM promotion and education be guaranteed through contextualisation? How else?
Sustainability arises when people become active themselves. We achieve this through participation. It is a central element of our work. We do not develop topics for the young target group, but the young target group develops their topics with us. We don't just ask once “What is of interest and what motivates you?”, But rather rely on the active participation and co-determination of young people who become the driving force of the process. BarCamps are a great example of this: A group meets on a main topic, but how this is structured and approached is determined by the participants themselves. In the MINT area, we carry out this format with young people as YouthScienceCamps. When developing our programs, we like to seek advice from youth groups - because if we develop something from our adult perspective, we may develop it past them.
MINT education is about classic school subjects that are also dealt with in the classroom - isn't that enough? Why is there a need for extracurricular learning locations?
School and extracurricular education have very different tasks and also differ in their framework conditions. Both are important and together they can convey fun in acquiring knowledge as well as the curiosity to deal more deeply with topics. School, however, pursues its educational mission in a large system. It is based on long-term curricula. Extracurricular education can complement this flexibly and with new learning and experience spaces that pick up on current developments, work based on phenomena or offer the space to consciously make mistakes.
Outside of school, we also have the opportunity to involve a large number of actors in the process of imparting knowledge, who provide young people with new impulses. This includes practitioners from various STEM professions, but also scientists. We would like an exchange between practitioners and research, in which students already participate. A great example of this are the zdi student laboratories at universities or FabLabs, which are becoming learning and experience laboratories for young people.
A central approach of ours is to transfer scientific knowledge into practice and to make it accessible to a broad population. We consistently focus on translating and making them available for young people in particularly exciting social contexts (e.g. Green Deal, digitization, healthy living, new mobility), and we refer to this as a science transformation.
We do STEM PROMOTION...
- based on over 15 years of experience
- fact-oriented & with methodological competence
- by translating science into practice
- with the active participation of the target group
- with a large network and knowledge of the scene
- Wide range and strong communication
- with a lasting effect
Does this detachment from the school context play a role for girls in particular?
Not in my experience. If we look at the numbers in the STEM field, however, it is unfortunately still the case that far fewer young women than young men choose a STEM subject. Of course, this also has something to do with socialization. The earlier you learn how natural it is to deal with STEM topics, regardless of gender, the more natural it becomes for young women, too. We have to get away from saying: "Girls need to be promoted in the MINT area."
Because JEDE: R should be promoted in the STEM area - especially young people.
IVaccine development, climate change - these are standard examples that draw attention to the social importance of STEM education. But socially relevant topics go even further – e.g. B. in the social area. For this you work in the team with the term MINTplus.
For us, MINTplus means: We think MINT ahead and link it with societal issues - MINT in care, digitization in health care, art and AI. Ultimately, it is again about the aspect of the contextualization of knowledge. STEM education makes it possible to place scientific and technical topics in context and thus to dedicate oneself to societal and social topics. We are convinced that this approach will also enable us to reach target groups who do not primarily feel they belong to the MINT area or who would like to develop professionally in this direction. We are also thinking about this in the European context. More on that shortly.
Thank you for the interview, Magdalena!
Example projects: zdi.NRW, zdi-BSO-MINT, MINT networked, shemakes.eu
Photos: Future through Innovation.NRW
www.zdi-portal.de
