Crystal R. Emery of STEM submitted the following article:
In 2015, President Barack Obama said, “[Science] is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world.”
However, the stark reality is that young people of color in economically disadvantaged communities may be looking for a better life for themselves, they may be working hard to find a connection to their future and to forge a pathway to success, but they seldom consider science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM careers. Why? For the simple reason that they rarely, if ever, encounter images of people like themselves who have achieved success as scientists, technicians, engineers or mathematicians. But URU, The Right to Be, Inc and the Community Action Agency of New Haven (CAANH) are changing that trajectory.
“I’ve always liked STEM,” a young man professes as he rides the elevator to the fourth floor to CAANH. It’s a good thing, too, because he is on his way to a science and robotics workshop co-hosted by CAANH’s Managing Your Future program and URU.
In the large community room filled with tables, URU staff members interface with the ninth and tenth graders in the Managing Your Future program. Tonight, URU anticipates that a hands-on experience with building robots will inspire students to explore the four STEM fields — science, technology, engineering, and math. URU has been active in New Haven for nearly 20 years, and its current initiative is Changing the Face of STEM, which aims to encourage young women and people of color into the STEM fields.
Another group of students is next door in the board room working with Dr. Orlando Yarborough, who is sharing a microscope and slides of flowers, bones, tissue, leaves, and other biological material for the students to examine. He’s hoping to not only demonstrate the thrill of scientific discovery but that it is cool to be a scientist.
“You can’t be what you can’t see,” Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the first Black Surgeon General of the United States, once said. A vital part of encouraging young people of color to go into STEM fields is showing them role models who look like them. In the main room, URU’s staff sits side by side with the students, going over the instruction for building a complex battery-powered robot capable of changing into four different modes, somewhat like a transformer. With one exception, all of the robotics teachers are Black, an unspoken demonstration of possibility for the students.
Over the course of the workshop, students assemble their own robots, piecing together gears, wires, motors, and chassis. URU employee Mary Esther Gourdin stands at the front of the room, building her own robot along with the students. When someone gets stuck, staff are there to help, but oftentimes the other students reach over to show them how to rotate a piece or click it into place.
“I’ve always been good with my hands,” says one student as she fixes a gear box into place. “I’m not good with my hands,” her neighbor laughs, “but I’m good with the theory!”
Another student who is sitting next to Mary Esther near the front of the room holds up pieces as she explains what to do with them, volunteering himself as an assistant. When the workshop reaches the point where the students can turn on their robots’ motors, the entire room is filled with buzzing and excited exclamations. A few don’t work, and those students turn their attention to troubleshooting. “It’s okay,” Mary Esther says. “You’re engineers now, and part of that is problem-solving.”
In their 2016 The Brookings Institution report, “Investing in America’s Future through STEM Education,” John R. Allen and Dean Kamen have this to say:
“We swoon over pop stars and movie stars … we pay the best pro athletes in the hundreds of millions of dollars … But as a society, we need to rethink our approach … The future … will be determined by students of STEM – young men and women from every part of America.”
New Haven is becoming one of the busiest pharmaceutical and technology centers in Connecticut. In order to take advantage of this, students must be prepared to enter into STEM fields. URU and CAANH will be continuing their collaboration to position local youth to be a part of the economic expansion.
