Source:
Aronowitz, Scott (16 September 2010). President Obama Launches National STEM Video Game
Challenge. Retreived from http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/09/16/president-obama-launches-national-
stem-video-game-challenge.aspx.
In this article, writer Scott Aronowitz discusses the STEM event held by President Barack Obama this past September, which was a campaign for "Educate to Innovate." The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) program was used to encourage children to create video games and participate in a competition in hopes that it would increase interest in math and science. Students in grades 5-8 who were interested were asked to design a video game that is specific to one of the STEM areas, in order to help educate there peers on that topic. Games were to be made for the Pre-K through 3rd Grade levels that help to teach beginning concepts of Math and Science. While these games are teaching younger children through media, the students designing these games are also benefitting from it as well. A non-profit organization took on this project that specifies in helping with educational media. There will be prizes ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 for what ends up being the most effective game. Aronowitz makes note of Obama's stance on the education system, saying that we must rely on our successes through discovering and innovating.
I really appreciates this article, since I grew up with three brothers who literally ate, slept, and breathed video games through their childhood. While you could not get them to sit down and do a math problem or study the parts of a plant, you could pop in a video game that required critical thinking, navigation, and knowledge on various subjects. It makes so much sense to now. Because the situations that are brought up in video games are interesting and involve reaching an ultimate goal, young children want to work hard at figuring out how to solve that problem. I think this is one of the better things that President Obama has done in order to put more emphasis on the education system. I admire that instead of finding more ways on assessments, he came up with something creative and fun for students, who would not only be willing to participate, but will do it well. This type of event is definitely a step in the right direction in terms of positive ways in teaching children how to think critically and to learn to love those areas of learning that are so much more difficult to learn because they can be more abstract. I look forward to reading a follow up on this event.
I completely agree with you Lindsey. It is so refreshing to take a break from hearing about assessments and student test scores. It is remarkable that President Obama is bringing back the trend of Learning can be done in other ways instead of "teaching to the test". Although Im sure these educational video games are going to be used to teach toward a test eventually, it is nice to see that children are getting a chance to use other skills in the learning process. As we all know there is more than one way to learn the same information and tests are not always the right road or best way to assess what children have learned. This is also a great way to get students excited about school again. I love this idea and think that it is, as you said, a step in the right direction. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteKatie,
ReplyDeleteEducating the masses has always and will always be difficult. When I was at Auburn getting my Masters Elementary Education I had to take a class in Educational History. What I learned in that class is that public education has always been controversial. I also learned that it started in parts of Africa long before it was in Europe and the United States. The issue is usually economic. The more educated a person is, the more skills they have the more money they make. Education historically, has impacted a culture economically. Public education hits the public personally through taxation. Historically, the rich don't want to pay for the poor to be educated. The rich want the poor to stay poor, so they can pay the poor as little as possible to work for them.
What I find ironic about public education in America is that we no longer allow religious teaching in public schools. I mean, I get it not everyone is the same religion, but when you go all the way back to before the United States became a nation to the very first settlers, one of the things they made sure their children had once the basics were covered was to learn to read so they could read the Bible. The very first schools were in churches, and the very first books for children in the United States taught lessons about the Bible. Did you know before the Child Labor Laws were passed back in the 1930's through the 1950's the only free education many poor children received was on Sunday before or after church? You see children as young as 5 and 6 years old worked 6 days a week. Their fathers' were given their wages, which were less than an adult male worker.
President Obama is trying to improve education, but the United States has come a very long way since the very first public school founded in Boston, MA back in 1652 I believe it was. Once you learn that you don't get overly excited about what is going on. You know this is just another chapter in improving the lives of the masses.