ago I stepped into an 8th grade
classroom filled with bright and eager
minds on the first day of school as a
high school teacher what was I thinking
now this is going to be my homeroom
class for the entire year but as far as
I knew I was only going to be there for
a couple of months and then leave I was
headed back to the great and opportunity
filled United States of America or at
least so I thought so I stood there as
their teacher and from one with my mind
flashback to the blood sweat and tears I
had poured into my college education I
was excited about this opportunity but I
was nervous and frustrated because I
wasn’t working as an engineer I remember
standing before my students and asking
the question how many of you know what
engineering is or perhaps would like to
become an engineer I scan the room and I
saw the hand of a young girl eagerly
waving her hands at me I knew she knew
the answer so I picked on her she stood
up laughing and flicking her hair and
said an engineer is somebody that fixed
engines like cars I said you’ve got to
be kidding me everybody burst into
laughter so I stood there and disbelieve
shaking my head and I said to her no
smooth that’s a mechanic here again we
have a generation of students that have
a lack of exposure knowledge to
lucrative challenging and innovative
careers such as that of engineering to
more than 10 years ago that girl was the
mirror reflection of me completely
unaware and unexposed fortunately on the
first day of college as a freshman
during orientation the light bulb turned
on because I was accepted into the
school of engineering and had no clue
what it was well today in the short time
that we have I will be sharing with you
on the topic right minds illuminating
education via stem stem I wonder and ste
m is the widely known acronym for
science technology engineering and
mathematics while STEM education has
become the most emphasized and talked
about matter as it relates to the prep
sustenance and sustenance of the
technology driven 21st century world
that we live in education is was and
will always be the key to output
mobility within a society and at large
even a country if this is the case then
why are we not placing more emphasis on
stem education some of the world’s
largest economies are placing a great
deal of emphasis on stem education why
you may ask because they’ve each
recognized that the source of talent and
innovation lies within our educational
system and what we pour into it has the
opportunity to produce returns both in
the short and the long term if that is
the case then why is why is it that we
as a nation though we are a small island
country are still waiting in the waters
of educational complacency and stagnancy
and not swimming to the shores of
education reform and advancement let’s
look at the bigger picture here there’s
an organization entitled the OECD the
organization for economic cooperation
and development and their focus many of
their focuses are in our engineering and
education it’s comprised of a unique
form of the governments of 34
democracies and there goes more policies
that will influence economic development
growth and prosperity so their focus of
engine engine nursery in education is
mainly in the exam called P is a program
international student assessment what it
is is at assessment test that is given
to 15 year olds across its varying
countries that participate in this
assessment it measures their ability and
skill and mathematics reading on science
and the latest report of the P is a has
stated that nearly all adults not just
those with technical or scientific
careers now need to have adequate
proficiency and mathematics reading on
science for personal fulfillment
employment and full participation within
society furthermore the PIAA has become
the world’s premier yardstick for
measuring the equity quality and
efficiency of school system
the secretary-general of the OECD stated
that in a global economy success is no
longer measured by national standards
alone but against the best performing
and most rapidly improving school
systems in the latest p is a assessment
that was took that was taking a 2015 72
countries participated of those 72
countries there are only two caribbean
country participants trinidad and tobago
and the dominican republic these
countries are no longer in the dark
about where they stand in their
educational system against the masses
they now know how their students are
performing against other larger
countries and mathematics reading and
science now they have the skills the
data the metrics in order to assess what
improvements need to be made in order to
better prepare their students as well as
to perform better in the 2018 assessment
the truth be if the truth were to be
told we all need a little bit of
competition to do better right tax BTC
I’m sure they’ll tell you they’ll say
the truth so why is it that the Bahamas
is not participating and things like the
PSP is a how do we measure against other
OECD countries how do we even measure
against other Caribbean countries for
years and decades and decades upon
decades we’ve continued to measure our
studies of success in math and science
against ourselves from year to year and
we do that through the Bahamas Junior
Certificate and the Bahamas General
Certificate of secondary education and
if you know the results like I do
they’re not too good so what do we do
about this well what it surprise you
that of the P is a that was taken in
2012 the top cut for forming countries
were China Japan Hong Kong Korea
liechtenstein Switzerland Netherlands
and those were your top countries at
2050 and again we have Hong Kong China
Taiwan Thailand Korea and again the list
is filled with European and Asian
countries at the top of the list is
there is some type of connection between
why is it that the students that are
performing the best and mathematics
reading and science are all Asian and
European countries there’s definitely a
connection between that I’ll give you an
example
the Ministry of Korea the Ministry of
saurian Minister of Education in Korea
recently decided to release a list on
the main third of 2616 a list of 21
universities that we’ve received the
largest government subsidy in its
nation’s history 200 billion won an
equivalent of 1.8 billion US dollars for
these 21 universities why it’s called
the prime project PR ime program
industrial needs match education
according to a report that was released
by the government of Korea in 2014 they
projected that in 10 years there would
be in shortage of 230,000 engineering
majors and a surplus of 530,000 liberal
arts majors so in order to deal with
this they decided that they were going
to invest 1.8 billion dollars into
universities asking them to increase the
amount of seats and engineering and
decrease the amount of seats in liberal
arts so that there would be a balance
that’s what we call a pro activity right
there why is it that we are not heavily
investing to our educational system why
are we not doing more to prepare our
students for careers in mathematics
science engineering technology if you
think about it that’s what’s running the
world today that’s probably what created
this lightbulb holding in my hand
technology somebody use mathematics and
science to figure out why this works the
way it does well let’s let’s take it a
step further how about if we look at the
results that in our friendly giant
neighbor the US had they fear of amongst
other countries in the p is a assessment
well in the results for 2012 the US the
u.s. fell from 19 to 20 second in
science from 10 to 20 than reading and
the results in mathematics they were 28
overall in 2015 you know what their
results look like they were stagnant for
reading in science but from Matt their
average dropped 11 points moving them
from 28 to 30 5th at the time when the
results were released in 2012 the u.s.
secretary for the State for Education
stated that some skeptics note that our
students have never fared well in
international assessments what these
skeptics fail to realize is that edge
has become increasingly important
particularly in propelling economic
growth more than in the 1960s or the
1980s education is the key education is
as a new currency and that currency is
recognized internationally welcome to
the 21st century education is our new
currency if that is the case then what
are we doing about our educational
system what are we doing to better
prepare our students for life in the
21st century if the truth were to be so
many of us can live without our cell
phones during the hurricane it was not
the cold water showers that bother me or
the fact that I didn’t have air
conditioning or I couldn’t use my fan it
was the fact that I could not get on the
internet that bothered me the most so
we’re so connected to technology we’re
so connected to to the wide world web as
well as ourself course but are we going
to stay consumers what happens to the
children that are innovating that are
creating that are that are raising the
level of intellect was in our community
why aren’t we doing more to sustain
these types of things if China Korea
Japan can be at the top why is it that
we can’t use what we have to bring
ourselves to the top how do we compete
globally if we are to be a viable player
in the global market if our students are
not prepared at the educational level if
it were to be told if I were to tell you
Japan is the world’s largest
manufacturer and electronics on top of
that their automobile industry they are
home to 6th and the top automotive
manufacturers nissan toyota honda mazda
suzuki and mitsubishi our home in japan
in korea you know it’s home to korea LG
samsung daewoo hyundai their economies
are thriving off of the talent that lies
within our education system they are
pouring money into it and students in
korea said some seventy percent of
students go on to complete education at
the tertiary level as a matter of fact
that general population is known to have
the highest attainment and tertiary
education across all oecd countries on
top of that for japan their curriculum
in math and science is world famous as a
matter of fact is demanding not only
does it demand
student have a wealth of knowledge and
information in the discipline itself but
challenging them to understand why
something is right not just strategy
implementation for why is this answer
right welcome to what is stem education
stem education of students that are
building that are innovating that are
tinkering it and understanding why
something works the way it does this is
why we need to move our education
forward so I stand to you today I stand
before you today as the president the
co-founder of Bahamas engineering
technology advancement when I was in
high school I had no clue what
engineering was as I told you earlier
when I stepped on to college as a
freshman I was accepted into the school
of engineering had no clue where I was
or what I was doing there I hadn’t even
applied to the School of Engineering
maybe it was half as fast maybe it was
Providence I don’t know but either way
my mother said you’d get a chemistry
you’re good about G let’s pick this one
I said okay let’s do it biomedical
engineering it was but during my
master’s degree program in that last
year I said to myself there’s something
missing I’m about to write this thesis
but I feel like I’ve been focusing a lot
of myself and not enough on other people
so I called up a couple of friends we
had a conversation and he said why did
you become an engineer why did you
become an engineer I don’t know I just
fell into it and that was the story for
18 of us who are all Bahamian sand all
around the same age group between 25 to
30 all fell into engineering that can’t
just be happenstance right so we said to
ourselves let’s come together let’s
create a group that is going to stand up
and fill the gap where they’re clearly
seems to be one that is in existing and
nobody else is steppin it so we
formulated Bahamas Internet technology
advancement group which is a nonprofit
organization focused on engineering
education since 2014 we have held three
summer camps and we’ve touched the lives
of over 200 behaving students across the
Diaspora and some of the results look
like this these are some of the students
in our civil engineering stream building
bridges to their instructor these are
students in our chemical engineering
stream who are testing reactivity for
different chemicals and on top of that
they’re also building process flow
diagrams who knew that 11 12 13 14 year
olds can be building process flow
diagrams at that age but this is what
our kids Dean look at our students there
sitting there coating learning from
computer scientists and computer
engineers about how to build a web
application how do we go this is what
our kids should be doing with that I
within our educational systems hey we
need to also open the gap the gender gap
because it seems to me that a lot of
engineers if you’re not a boy well I
guess you shouldn’t be an engineer right
no we have girls who are actually
interested in engineers as well these
are students who are soldering you don’t
do these things until college I didn’t
do this until I was a freshman in
college in my engineering 101 class
these students are doing it in the
seventh and eighth grade this is how we
produce innovators this is how we
provide exposure and create an economy
that’s not just simply based on our
tourism but has technology to support it
this is what we need furthermore these
are students who are building renewable
renewable energy sources because we we
can’t simply obviously run off of what
we’ve been running off right the Bahamas
is filled with a lot of Sun why are we
talking into that there’s so many other
ways we can produce energy these kids
are gonna be the ones to build that then
we have students who are again in our
chemical engineer extreme mixing
chemicals look at the look on his face
they’re so excited because education has
to go beyond textbook and exam and now
it’s a hands-on touching building I need
to see these things in action and that’s
where the disconnect is a lot of our
kids can be smart theoretically but
where’s the practicality in our
educational system we need to supplement
it with things such as this these are
kids in our industrial engineering
stream while learning about procurement
and when you when you order materials
and project management they’re doing
this at 7th 8th 9th and 10th grade Wow
sometimes I get amazed by that and these
are students in the biomedical strength
and engineering stream who are building
hydraulic prosthetic hands this again is
what our kids need to be doing within
their educational system so where is the
disconnect here is it because we as
famous won’t step in or we as whatever
country you may be from are not stepping
up to be honest when I found it at home
very very sad was crying because there
seems to be a lack of opportunity but
what happens when we begin to turn on
the light bulb and say hey where there
was a lack of opportunity there’s also
an opportunity to create that which does
not exist and that’s what we should be
doing so I showed you this light bulb
this is an incandescent light bulb
there’s a reason why I showed us because
how many people how many people are
still using these within their homes not
many right because we’ve moved on from
incandescent light bulbs and we’re now
using what we call fluorescent light
bulbs why if we can advance the light
that we use within our homes can we not
advance the education can we not bright
in our minds but then we’ve moved on
from this we’re no longer using direct
valid votes we are now using LED light
bulbs light-emitting diode why there’s a
reason why we went from this to this to
this do you know why this consumes four
times more energy than this does this
consumes six times more energy than
vista so we’re saving money but at the
same time we have a longer usage for
this we have about a thousand hours on
it so which means and after about a
thousand dollars i’ll need to replace it
for this one the lifespan is 17,000 1700
hours maximum 70,000 sorry and then for
this one i have 50,000 hours so while
this might be slightly more expensive i
have to put a little bit more money out
of my pocket to buy this and the long
run i will end up spending less money on
light bulbs and on my life oh great I
think that’s we all need to be doing so
if we can illuminate our houses save
money should be illuminate our minds my
goal is to make sure that as engine as
an engineer there are more just like me
coming up behind me so here’s my idea
let’s illuminate our educational system
let’s do away with just textbook and
exam and let’s move into hands-on
project based learning that’s what needs
to go into our school systems and if we
do that then we were created an economy
and an educational system that
and breathe technology innovation
engineers scientists you name [Applause]