This year I have had the opportunity, along with two of my peers, to create and lead UWC East’s very first High School STEM Club. The term ‘STEM’ stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, with the abbreviation often used to refer to career paths relating to these respective fields. Furthermore, the aim of STEM club is to create a platform for those passionate about one or more of its elements to further explore and discover them alongside peers with likeminded interests.
This process was initiated when my friend and fellow leader contacted an organization called STEM girls, a group that aims to empower women to pursue careers in the fields of STEM. She proposed to me the idea to start a club here in UWC based on their movement, something I was very excited to be a part of. There was already a group in dover functioning on the same ideas, but we tried to hold this with indifference in influencing our personal approach in any way.
With the inclusion of a friend of ours who we knew to be interested in STEM as well, our progress towards creating this club began. Our ideas and aims for the group changed drastically from beginning to end, the most influential of which being the decision to change the club from STEM Girls to just STEM. I was particularly adamant on making this change, as I felt that boys experience the same isolation as girls in school when it comes to discussing their interests in the fields of STEM due to existing social stigmas. After all, our underlying cause throughout this whole process was to create a club distinct from such stereotypes, where the the limitations of high school life should not be a hindrance to those who would like to express their interests with others.
I have long since had a distaste for the way that groups like the Science and Math Clubs here in UWC have created an incredibly competitive and knowledge-based environment, for I do not feel that passion is a measure of intelligence nor the extent to which people are willing to dedicate all of their time and interest. For example, both of the other student leaders of this group have taken two sciences and math at higher level, whilst I have chosen to pursue english as my third higher level subject with the intention to diversify my subject package more than anything else. I do not feel this makes me any less capable or interested in the field of math. Many of the math based clubs in school require students to take HL math, but I strongly disagree that there should ever be a criteria for someone to do what they enjoy. Therefore it became a primary aim for us in the structuring of this group that we would attempt to create an environment that is attainable and inclusive to everyone involved. In the end, we were able to formulate the following plan for the year ahead:
– Group discussions. In these sessions, we will discuss as a group a particular topic relating to a field of STEM that will be introduced and described to everyone by one of the leaders. These topics will be relevant in current affairs and be debatable and ethically questionable in nature, allowing us to consider different perspectives and understand the moral and otherwise responsibilities that one may face in a career relating to STEM. For example, the first session will be on the controversial topic that is eugenics and genetic manipulation, which falls under the science category.
– Begin, write and publish/present reports. this will be an individual research task that we will assign to each member, in which they will have the freedom to choose any topic related to STEM, describing this topic in detail, considering its controversies and relevance to STEM in the modern day and finally discussing and justifying their own stance towards it. While we had initially planned for this to be in the form of a report, we are now inclined towards allowing everyone to publish their findings in any (creative or otherwise) digital manner they please.
– Host panel talks during the final weeks of the academic year
CAS Supervisor: Mr. Yorksmith (MYS)
CAS Learning Outcomes: Learning outcome 3, learning outcome 5
Linked here: Details regarding the club (session dates, timing, etc.)
