Last week we launched the Google Online Science Fair in Australia. You can read more at my Google Australia blog post. I'm excited about the Online Science Fair because it is a great way to reach a broad audience of students interested in science.
This is important because unfortunately there is much evidence to suggest that students in many countries are getting turned off science and maths at an early age. For example, in Australia, according to Australian Social Trends, 2009, while 66% of grade 4 students declared a positive attitude towards maths (a percentage comparable to the international average), by grade 8 only about 33% per cent of Australian students retained a positive attitude (compared with an international average of 54%).
Maths is a bellwether for the related disciplines of science, technology and engineering, including information technology (IT). Clearly, more needs to be done to make science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) interesting to school students. While a few students naturally gravitiate to subjects such as maths and science and love the challenges they provide, they are relatively few in number. Reaching a broader audience of students, and then keeping them engaged is more difficult to do.
The best way to make a subject attractive is to make it fun, and the best way to make it interesting is to make it relevant. Most students become much more interested in a subject when they can see the real-world applications. STEM teaching needs to have this applied emphasis to make it compelling. However it needs to be applied in ways that are relevant to the younger generation. For example, mobile phones, social networking, online games, digital media, etc., are all areas that demonstrate the exciting possibilities of information technology (IT). In particular, App Inventor for Android is a great way to get young users interested in IT without actually requiring coding, since it uses an easy-to-use visual programming environment.
We also need to get the word out that, contrary to popular perception, the demand for graduates with STEM skills is very strong globally. Companies, such as Google, have an insatiable demand for software engineers. And Google is not alone. Engineers Australia is predicting a shortage of 20,000 scientists and engineers in Australia alone.
Last but not least, a STEM education prepares students for exciting careers in professions that make the world a better place or improve our understanding of it. And often it all starts when a young mind gets hooked on the thrill of solving a mathematical puzzle, or completing a science experiment. Or perhaps entering a science fair :-)