Countless schools across NJ see the value in teaching STEM concepts during early education. It serves a range of benefits for young, growing minds. In fact, many teachers maintain that STEM is best taught alongside global learning. This concept of global learning further helps children to become more cultured, observant and tolerant adults.
In a recent episode of the new Think Tank with Steve Adubato program, the show host discusses these very ideas. In particular, this episode explores the changing world of education through the lens of award-winning teachers. Guests include Patricia Smeyers, 2019 Hudson County Teacher of the Year and fifth grade math teacher at Clarendon Elementary School; Ikechukwu Onyema, chemistry teacher at East Orange Campus High School and National Education Association Foundation; Jennifer Bariso, technology teacher at Robert Erskine Elementary School and Peter Cooper Elementary School; and Nikki Silva, Milken Award Honoree and third grade teacher at Nathan Hale School.
Why STEM and Global Learning Are a Perfect Match
Each member of the panel agrees that teachers can introduce STEM concepts as early as kindergarten. The panel also says there are ways to integrate STEM concepts as part of global learning studies. In addition, they explain that STEM education and global learning is not just a New Jersey issue; it is a national issue.
“Global education is about… when my students leave my classroom, they need to know that they’re not just residents of East Orange,” said Onyema. “There’s a much wider state; there’s a much wider country; a much wider world. They’re competing with all of those folks, and they’re going to need to work together, collaborate with those folks, to actually improve the world that we live in.”
Bariso added: “There’s a generation where [students] are focusing on themselves, and they need to know that what they do is going to affect them in the greater scheme. So [global learning is] just learning good citizenship and everything like that.”
What to learn more about global learning and how it significantly correlates with STEM concepts? Don’t miss this edition of Think Tank with Steve Adubato.
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Feature (Top) Image: © Think Tank with Steve Adubato / Caucus Educational Corporation