Keeping the Wonder of SCIENCE and MATH Alive
From Rick McMaster
 Most of the time people expend very little effort in relating science and math to their everyday life yet every year around this time there is at least one story about how Santa Claus (aka Saint Nicholas) is physically able to deliver gifts around the world in a mere 24 hours. NORAD even tracks his progress on a web site.
Sometime between the ages of six and fourteen children stop believing that a jolly man in a furry, red suit brings the gifts that they receive. At the upper end of this age range, children also stop believing that science and math are subjects that they can master. They lose the wonder about how the world around them operates and trudge through classes in algebra, biology, chemistry, geometry, trigonometry, and even calculus and physics. I believe that this shift occurs, in part, because we try to get across concepts that are abstract and removed from the everyday experience and interests of the students.
Students are immersed in science and technology every day including the homogenized and pasteurized milk they have on their breakfast cereal and the smart phones they use to text, tweet and share photos. When they have an opportunity to literally dissect this technology, they are fascinated. Ask a couple of kids to tear apart a pop up toaster and explain what makes it work, and you will find them fascinated by the physics concepts of electricity and mechanics. Have them do a simple exercise like telling a robot how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and they will begin to fathom the effort behind sending an Instagram. It’s not practical to expand every STEM lesson into a hands-on event, but without this connection STEM boils down to just a collection of facts to be memorized and forgotten after the next test or maybe the final exam. Making this connection is the key to developing students who can synthesize these facts and come up with the equivalents of the Model T or Mac or small pox vaccine. Even though my daughter is in college, Santa will still have a plate of cookies and a glass of milk waiting for him near our tree. It’s our connection with the wonder of the season.
Enjoy the virtual snack at the top of this column for the holiday that you celebrate. It’s for all of you who are working to keep the wonder of the world of alive. And enjoy these photos of decorated trees along the Capital of Texas Highway in Austin.
As always, your comments are welcome, @drkold.
Rick McMaster is the STEM Advocate at IBM’s University Programs Worldwide.
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