Forbes Innovation Science Today's Tinkerers Are Tomorrow's Inventors Calvin Mackie Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about public engagement in STEM. Following Feb 16, 2023, 02:48pm EST | Press play to listen to this article! Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Kids building their own bluetooth speaker at a SGA STEM Saturday Edwin Henriquez - SGA Dr.
Calvin Mackie NEW ORLEANS - I remember the scene so well. My uncle Louis Gordon visited from Los Angeles. He and my father, Willie Mackie, sat in the living room corner, enjoying a drink, and talking old times.
They had picked cotton together for years in West Feliciana Parish before leaving the rural country for urban New Orleans where they eventually became a carpenter and my dad learned to be a roofer. Across the room, I was busy with the present my uncle brought to me – my first Erector set. At nine years old, I took the medal strips, fastened them together, clasped on wheels, a pulley wheel and a short time later, a car rolled slowly around the floor.
Suddenly, my uncle Louis jumps up, points and shouts: “That boy's going to be an engineer. ” At this point, I didn’t know an engineer, couldn’t spell it or even knew what it was” but from that point forward I knew that was what I would become! Decades later, Uncle Louis turned out to be right. I went from being a high school senior with an 840 combined SAT score to earning a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Morehouse College, as well as a Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.
D. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech. For twelve years, I was even a tenured mechanical engineering professor at Tulane University.
People often ask me how did I make the journey from underachieving on standardized tests to excelling in one of the world’s most challenging fields? Obviously, I worked hard. But a largely overlooked activity propelled me to achieve at engineering. It was the tinkering that I did as a child.
When I wasn’t playing with erector sets, I was helping my father and uncle Joe Gordon repair roofs, change the oil in cars or fix the motor in the refrigerator or wash machine. My entire childhood was spent tinkering. And I loved it.
Later as I was moving toward completing high school, I only thought about careers that would allow me to continue tinkering. That's how I connected with engineering, especially mechanical engineering. Here's a reality: Today's tinkerers are tomorrow's inventors! Dr.
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The National Association for the Education of Young Children , puts it like this: “Children initially use their senses to explore the physical properties of materials. They tinker as they take things apart, put things together, figure out how things work, and attempt to build and make creations using tools. When they are faced with a problem, children ask questions, make plans, work together, test their ideas, solve problems, improve their ideas to make them better, and share their ideas and creations with others.
These are the thinking processes and actions that scientists and engineers use. These professionals, when faced with a challenge, solve real- world problems that often come with constraints, including limited materials, time, and funds to develop solutions. ” Today, with so much attention on new technology in the classroom, and flashy, faddish, and distracted trends like Instagram and TikTok, advancing motor skills and stimulating the imaginations of our children too often takes a backseat.
Programs and activities must be supported that introduce children to opportunities that bridge creative ideas with using their hands. That’s the basic core of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning and skills. When tinkering, a child is continuously asking, ‘Why does this work or why isn’t that working?’ We must keep our children’s minds and hands engaged if want them to blossom into the next generation’s inventors and STEM leaders.
The New York Times wrote an article about concerns that today’s surgeons didn’t tinker enough as children, leaving the muscles in their hands ill-equipped to master the motor skills needed to excel as surgeons. “Some say it’s because of fewer hands-on courses in primary and secondary schools — shop class, home economics, drawing, painting, and music. Children at a STEM Saturday learning about chemiluminescence and how it works on a Mardi Gras float.
Edwin Henriquez- SGA Others blame too much time spent tapping and swiping screens rather than doing things that develop fine motor control like woodworking, model building and needlework,” the article said. “While clumsiness is a growing concern in medical schools, the extent and permanence of the problem are unclear. ” The government as well as the private and non-profit sectors, invest in programs and initiatives aimed at increasing participation and diversity in STEM careers.
They seek to have more girls and students of color thinking about STEM in high school, community college and four-year schools where they learn more about professional opportunities that can lead to quality jobs and careers. This is a good development. But it can’t stop there.
Our educators and policy makers must recognize the limits of this strategy: it targets the end of the pipeline, the years when students may already have their career goals set. Moreover, by the time students reach this level of their education, they may not have developed the motor skills required for some STEM positions. We need them tinkering at a young age.
Further, an important role can be played by parents and communities. They must be at the forefront, advocating for more of these programs. The City of New Orleans, our Public Library system, and Recreation Department recently entered into an agreement with STEM NOLA to provide STEM learning and tinkering activities in afterschool, summer, and weekend programs.
We want to make STEM learning and tinkering activities as popular as sports programs so that our children can begin preparing for quality jobs and careers in STEM. Resources must be made available to support programs and initiatives that work with children in their early ages, at the very beginning of the career pipeline. We need our children tinkering and working with their hands… and to spend time away from the television, video games and cell phone screens.
That’s how we can ensure they are tinkering and thinking. We must arouse their curiosity and motivate them to question the whys and how’s of our universe. That’s where their induction to STEM must begin.
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