E D U C A T I O N
I am a woman. I am Black. I am a daughter of immigrants.
Historically, and even a bit today, those three attributes that are part of what makes me, me, were seen as "bad", or "less than". We were called over-emotional, thugs, and aliens. We were told to stay in the kitchen and raise babies, to remain in inferior positions, to go back where we came from. The time for that is over and should have been long, long ago.
Since I was a small child I have been fascinated by science, every aspect of the discipline caused my eyes to grow wider and wider. In school whenever we did learn of female scientists, we heard the names Rosalind Franklin or Rachel Carson or Marie Curie, or Barbara McClintock. We never heard of women or people of color when we discussed pivotal STEM figures. I didn't hear the name Katherine Johnson until I was a freshman in college and Hidden Figures came out. Now, luckily for me, I had two immigrant, Black parents who were college-educated and working in STEM fields. My dad received a Bachelors in Mathematics and a Masters in Business Administration. My mother received her Bachelors in Computer Engineering and a Masters in Health Data Analysis. I never had to wonder if STEM was an option to me because I say my parents doing it. However, I always think about the young boys and girls of color who don't have a parent in the STEM field or even college-educated.
This was the birth of one of my passions and one of the large reasons why as a Black woman, I made the choice to teach science. I never had a Black science teacher from Kindergarten on and through college. Not a single one. I want to be that for my students. I want them to see themselves in me. A Black woman who is the child of immigrants who went to one of the best public universities in the country.
Before joining the UTeach program, I had no idea what Making was. Sure I knew that there were people who were super crafty and could turn nothing into something, but I didn't know of the role it could play in the STEM classroom. Truthfully, in the beginning, I wouldn't even have associated Making with STEM, my brain would by default have gone to Fine Arts. Seeing Making in the POV of STEM truly was a new, eye-opening experience for me. I am and have always been a left-brained individual. I wouldn't consider myself to be very creative and free-flowing. I am more methodically, logically, and put together. Due to this, I have always approached STEM from this lens. I never once considered how STEM would be interpreted by right-brained people. Had it not have been for UTeach and Maker, I would have brought that left-brained approach to my classroom and I wouldn't have been able to connect with the right-brained students in my class.
Incorporating STEM into my classroom doesn't only benefit the right-brained students but the left-brained students too! As one might imagine, being able to join creativity and STEM can be the difference between the right-brained students comprehending the material and being completely lost. However, the benefits to a left-brainer can be just as beneficial, and I know this on a personal level. We left-brainers are so straight-to-the-point, methodical people that we can easily get stuck in a perpetual routine to interpret new information. When Making is introduced to a left-brained person, we are forced to rewrite the routine and find a new way to digest and present the material. Honestly, it causes us to think harder than usual because we are being made to think in an "unusual" way.
Making can open doors when it is made accessible to a wide range of students. Since Making is so personal, giving a diverse group of Makers access to the same MakerSpace can lead to completely different products, despite the students having the same resources available to them. Why? Because no two students have the same experience, the same life. Since Making forms a bridge between the right and left sides of the brain, it allows students to bring passion and emotion to marry with reason and logic, to create something unique and beautiful.
All students should have access to a MakerSpace and classroom teachers, STEM or not, should make a concerted effort to incorporate Making into their instruction. Not only will this serve as a creative outlet, but it will also give the students the chance to connect deeper with themselves.
