Leaders of Tomorrow

A few days ago I was lucky enough to be able to interview our school’s team of Young STEM Leaders. Hayley, Zack, Adam and Yehia were very amiable and agreed to answer some of our questions about STEM and the role of being a STEM leader. 

Firstly, I asked them for an overview of what the Young STEM Leaders do, to which Zack responded, “We promote STEM to the younger years”. Through doing activities and presentations to the younger years, they hope to show the importance of STEM as well as the wealth of career options within the field. 

Furthermore, when asked about what kind of impact they feel that they have had on STEM in our school, Adam said, “I’d say we’ve had a pretty good impact. When we did lessons with S1 and S2 classes they seemed to really engage with the lesson that we gave them – even the more information heavy ones rather than only the fun activity ones.” 

They have already presented six lessons so far which have consisted of a game of Kahoot to show the breadth of career opportunities within the engineering field. As Hayley put it “to show them that engineering isn’t just one thing. There are so many different branches within engineering.” She also added that in another lesson they used paper straws to build straws with the students so that they could get into the mindset of being a structural engineer.

One thing that makes this organisation stand out in comparison to others is its relatability. As Zack put it, “We’re actual students and have a closer connection than some random guy coming in to talk to you about STEM. When it's actual students they can relate to us more and are more likely to listen and pay attention.”

Next, when asked what they would say to an aspiring STEM leader, Hayley said “Do it.” She and her fellows feel that being a part of the team has given them invaluable experiences in public speaking and presenting. “You build your skills quite a lot, and plus, you get a cool badge!” 

Although Adam originally felt that presenting to his peers was daunting at first, it was swiftly overcome and he said that it should not be a deterrent for anyone aspiring to be a STEM leader. In his own words, when talking about the nerves of public speaking, he said “even that wasn’t that difficult.” They all felt that being in the team had developed their confidence and given them invaluable skills for life.

The passion for spreading the importance of STEM is a goal universally held by the STEM leaders. Zack said “STEM is all around us. The building was designed by Mr Crookshanks and he had to use triangulation and all sorts of things that you come across as a STEM leader and STEM learner. It's just everywhere. Even how they planned out the classrooms, all links to STEM.” Hayley continued: “We wouldn’t be here without STEM and people need to appreciate its importance more because it is literally everywhere.” 

I asked them if they felt that the school was doing enough to promote STEM. Overall, they thought that the school was making an effort, but could still do more. “I think they should be doing a bit more, especially down in the engineering department, with how much kit is down there and not being used unless for the odd lesson in first and second year.”  Also, Hayley added, “I’d really like to see more promotion of girls taking STEM subjects: especially engineering. There are a lot of girls who take maths and physics and biology but engineering is often left out. But it is a really good subject and people just need to realise that it is there and is so important.”

If you are a prospective Young STEM Leader you may be in luck because as Zack put it “We want more people in STEM in general so the more STEM leaders the better. It’ll help spread STEM to more people and there’ll be more classes that can be taught and therefore more people who will be more likely to take STEM careers in the future.”