Continuing from the previous post on how Computational Thinking has been one of the most valuable skill I learned from taking classes at MIT, this post shares a key perspective I gained from completing the thesis — Teamed Computational Thinking! What’s Actually Required from the Thesis? Every Master’s student in Mechanical Engineering at MIT needs to complete a thesis to graduate. The thesis is basically a book that the students need to write based on the research they do. My thesis was titled “The Effects of Temperature and Carbon Nanotubes on Conducting Polymer Mechanical Performance ..read more

When it comes to STEM education, the most ambitious goal is probably to get up to the standards that the best science & engineering programs provide: Caltech, MIT, Stanford… you name it! What do these schools actually promote to become world famous? In this post, I will be sharing the most helpful, critical skills I gained from MIT. The purpose is not to advertise for the school or brag about any of my achievements. And of course, it’s also not to belittle any programs. The goal of this post is to share the key skills that YOU can help your children/students develop starting today, so they ..read more

“Mama, I want to do this summer STEM camp because I’ll get to play with robots!” said Johnny. “What is it about? Maybe…? How much does it cost? Is it worth it?” Johnny’s mom thought. When summer vacation approaches, advertisements on various STEM summer camps can be attractive. If your child is interested in STEM for the summer like Johnny, or if you are a teacher and being asked for STEM camp suggestions, how can you help the children choose the best fit? First of All, Robots are not Equal to STEM Just because a summer camp flyer shows a happy 7-year-old playing with a robot, it does not m ..read more

“I built this and the LED turns on,” said my student. “What is an LED? What does it stand for? Why is there a resister in the circuit?” I asked. “I don’t know cause I just followed the pictures in the manual,” replied my student. Imagine seeing a student’s project at a science fair with blinking LED lights. It works! It looks fancy! But when the student hasn’t even thought through these basic questions, the project only LOOKS fancy. The fanciness isn’t positively proportional to the student’s STEM-ability. The Purpose of Science Fairs The real purpose of a science fair is to grow the scienti ..read more

“Mom, I have to do a science fair project. I don’t know what to do!” said Henry. “Don’t worry, baby. We’ll do it together,” said his Mom. “Oh boy, another one? I don’t know what to do, either,” THOUGHT his Mom. Have you had similar thoughts as Henry’s mother, when there are already a million activities going on, and Henry needs to make a poster board that needs a ton of work? Most of the time, a science fair project is a family project. It implies needing your help to come up with a topic, doing research, conducting experiments or building a device, AND making that board which will take you ..read more

“Why do I need to know so much math! You don’t even use it as an adult. You only use math to do groceries.” If you’ve taught someone math, you have likely heard this complaint. I just heard it today, again. In fact, I’ve said the same thing myself when I was a kid! Why Do Kids Say It? Do kids mean it when they say it? Yes, they do. In kids’ lives, why do they need to know so much math? They wake up with all three meals prepared FOR THEM, activities planned FOR THEM, and playdates set up FOR THEM. When all the decisions and plans have been made FOR THEM, their job is to just go through the d ..read more

“Mama, look! I made a car with cardboard!” said Jen, a 7 year old. “Wow, you’re going to be a great engineer,” replied her mother. Jen’s Mom celebrated Jen’s effort because she “made” a “car”. A car is a car, but the definition of “make” can be vague. She probably cut cardboard into the shape of a car; she might have constructed pieces of cardboard into a car; or she could have even added an engine to a 3-dimensional cardboard car model and made it move. All these can be concluded as “I made a car.” But which one really means “I engineered a car”? How do we, as parents and teachers, put the ..read more

“Look, I can do long division so fast!” said one of my students. “Why do we do long division?” I asked. “I don’t know,” he replied. This student has memorized how to do math but has not understood why he needs to learn it. He would ace his tests but he might not recognize when he can use long division as a tool. On the other hand, I have worked with students who know the why really well but stumbles upon calculation errors every other steps, with all ten fingers out, counting. So what’s important? Knowing the why? Or knowing the how? Both. Math is a computational thinking tool to help us bre ..read more

“Why is your ice cream melting?” I asked my students. “I’m eating it too slowly,” said a kindergartener. “It’s hot out so it’s melting,” said a 4th grader. “It’s becoming liquid,” said a middle schooler. “It’s absorbing heat so the phase is changing,” said a high schooler. “Given its mass and specific heat, the change in the temperature causes the ice cream to absorb heat, causing an increase of energy at a molecular level and resulting in a reduction in molecular attraction that has the effect of melting,” said a PhD candidate. When I ask a simple question to students in different grade lev ..read more

“I’ve been in several robotics competitions, so building another robot is easy,” said a middle schooler in GATE (Gifted and Talented Education). “So how many times does each wheel need to turn for the robot to travel to the end of the room?” I asked. “Oh, I never learned that,” he said. If he was willing to take some time to break down the problem, he would just need to do two steps of calculation using the math he already learned two years ago. His reluctance to solve a problem that he’s capable of doing is not rare in students. He knows math, very very well, but it didn’t come to him as a ..read more