No stifling allowed in STEM By Judy Arnall
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omeone posed this question to me the other day: “My daughter is showing increased interest in math and science.
Should I enrol her in STEM day camps, after-school classes, or extracurricular activities geared to STEM in order to continue her education?” That got me thinking: do children really need to be taught STEM learning, and do formal classes in STEM help or hurt children’s curiosity and creativity, two traits that are essential for exploration in STEM careers? Having five children interested in learning about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, I believe that STEM classes are OK as long as 28 Alberta School Counsellor / Spring 2022
they are fun and open-ended. However, they are a “nice-to-have,” not a “needto-have” learning experience. Children do not need formal classes or activities to further their interest and learning in STEM.
knowledge of the sound oscillations in
When my son was two years old, he loved those metal-coiled, rubber-tipped doorstoppers that went “twaaaannggg”. He would play with them while lying on his belly on the cold floor, and the sound drove us crazy, because he would do it repeatedly. He needed to reinforce those learning pathways in his brain, and he was accumulating experience of the door-stopper workings, so that 20 years later, he would have first-hand
experimentation is allowed so that
his electrical engineering class when he had to do the paper calculations. If parents are going to enrol children in formal STEM classes, they need to research how much free rein and their interests are not stunted. Not all children take instruction well. Some children just want to follow their own agenda and experiment with their own materials and ideas. Many of the extracurricular classes are just like “more school.” I was having a discussion yesterday with my engineering son and he said the one
