Kyued up – Prototyping STEM education Prototype 1: Science activity centre
Kyued Up STEM
Jun 04, 2015
We’re the STEM team in Kyuedup. STEM means Science Technology Engineering and Maths, and is recognized as a major contributor to economic growth and development. In the last weeks, we talked to a lot of local parents, children and teachers. Everyone was concerned about STEM education achievement here. Concerns were lack of career paths, and a perception that science was hard and only for elite clever people. We want to change that. Our idea is to create a Kid’s Science Centre at OIST, with 3 goals – fun, engagement and real research. We propose a spectacular fun facility which gets kids excited; we propose a workspace area to run long-term science education projects and competitions; and we propose daily interaction with OIST labs and staff by having the facility by the campus. This can be privately-funded and commercially viable, adding to Okinawa’s tourist infrastructure, creating jobs, while all the way igniting a passion for science and technology, and we hope…planting the seeds for the technology entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
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Kyued up – Prototyping STEM
education Prototype 1: Science activity centre
Kyuedup
http://pullapproach.com/#WHATIS
Design thinking methodology
Identify a problem or opportunity for improvement
E – Empathize, engage with real people, observe
D – Define the problem
I – Ideate, identify possible solutions
P - Prototype
T - Test
What is STEM?Science
Technology
Engineering
Mathematics
The topic…
Okinawa is a significant outlier in STEM educational achievement, compared to other prefectures.
Everyone we spoke too was concerned about this.
Data provided by junior high school teacher during interview (Feb 2014)
Problem statement
Who: Children in Okinawa
What: Achieve higher performance in STEM educational assessments
Why: STEM is seen as a key contributor to economic and social development
Feedback (as told by real teachers, parents & students)
“Scientists are extremely clever, I could never do that”
“If I study science, it’s not clear what job I can get”
“I don’t really know what scientists do”
“Education achievement can’t be de-coupled from other factors (e.g. high divorce rate)”
“Children are too busy, suffer from fatigue”
“Cultural differences…More relaxed attitude, less competitiveness, aggression, drive”
“There are few science or hi-tech jobs in Okinawa”
The idea – Science Activity Centre
“Fun” “Projects workspace”
“Real daily
science & scientists”
The ideaScience activity centre
A) “Wonder museum”, short-term visitors, tourist attraction
=> Get people hooked
=> Funding
B) STEM workspaces & education zones; repeat visitors
=> Education & development
C) Exposure to working researchers & running labs=> Juxtapose with OIST
=> Demystify science daily work
Tourist attraction
Workspace ideas…
Maker cultureBiodiversity
RoboticsClean energy
Coding
A working lab on display?
Keywords
Spectacular Tourist attraction
Short visits
Expensive (day-ticket)Supervised childcare
Restaurant
Gift shop
Commercially viable
Playground
Cheap for repeat visitors (annual
pass)
Repeat visitors
Local kids, schools, parents, universities, OIST
Careers adviceRobotics, Energy,
Programming, Ecology, …
Juxtapose with working labs
On campus/glass wall/goldfish
bowl/mezzanine
See real work, not contrived
mock-ups
“Projects workspace”“Fun”
“Juxtapose with daily work”
Engagement
Staff jobs
Student part-time jobs
Demystify, make it seem attainable
Mock student start-up
company
Science competitions
Classes
Overlap with other Kyuedup teams & topics
IT skills/programmi
ng
Tourist attractions & infrastructure
Linking communities in
Okinawa
Improved English skills
Free municipal Wifi
Lift STEM interest & achievement
Existing facilities (1)
Chura Umi, Ocean Expo park
Visit, 9.3.2014
Objective – Observe…What is available for hands-on experiments/project work?
How many tourists?
How many kids?
Hands on experiments?
Extremely beautiful & informative displays, but not much in terms of hands-on or project work
Tourists? Children?
わ
- Early March, but still plenty of visitors
- Counted 1 row of cars, 90% were rentals (presumably tourists)
- Lots of kids; seemed to be a high proportion of very small kids (<2 years old)
Existing facilities (2)
Wonder Museum, Kodomo no Kuni, Okinawa city
Visit scheduled, 20.3.2014
Me
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