Encouraging
Young Students To Pursue STEM Careers
by Terri Moon Cronk, DOD News
November 30, 2021
Attracting young people to embrace
education in STEM subjects ... science, technology, engineering and
math ... and sparking their interest in STEM careers is critical to
keeping the nation first in technology, DOD’s chief data officer
said recently.
David Spirk took this message to Mitchell
Elementary School in Tampa, Florida, for the annual "Great American
Teach-In" and spoke to a class of third- and fifth-graders on November 16, 2021.
David Spirk, the Defense Department chief data officer, speaks virtually to children at Mitchell Elementary School in Tampa, Florida from the Pentagon, November 16, 2021. Spirk highlighted the importance of data management; artificial intelligence; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. (U.S. Defense Department photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Jack Sanders)
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"One of the areas that I'm most excited
about is helping teach the new generation that's coming behind us
exactly how data can improve everything we do," he told the
fifth-grade class where his son, Eli, is a student. Spirk, who
connected with the students remotely from the Pentagon studio, told
the class it’s vital for the DOD to become smart using its data in a
better way to make faster and better decisions. Spirk also spoke to
the third-grade class where his son, Hudson, is a student.
"What we try to do is talk about how we go from becoming data
informed at the department, how we make sure we have our hands
around an organized data set, so we can start deriving better
business analytics and better decisions in our day-to-day
operations," he said. "As we begin to become data informed, what we
start to do is move to [being] data driven."
Spirk spoke to
both classes about data analysis, algorithms and programming to
write codes; and networks and the internet. When he asked the
students if they had written any code, almost everyone raised their
hands. Spirk said he found that exciting.
Spirk led the
students in an experiment on collecting data by doing histograms:
Each child had a bag of candies and a chart. They put the candies on
the chart by color and totaled them by color and number of candies.
Spirk interacted with the students as they relayed their results.
Spirk’s sons took their classmates’ work home for the Thanksgiving
break to compile the numbers and colors to present the totals to the
classes as examples of data analysis.
"I'm always learning
something new," he told the classes. "Data space is just a really
fascinating place where somebody's inventing a new capability, a new
technique. And, so, I spend a lot of time reading. I even go on to
[online] classes because I need to stay as sharp as I can," he added
about young STEM talent joining him in the workforce.
Spirk
said the United States is a great nation. "We are the beacon of
democracy, and we have freedoms that many people in this world don't
necessarily get to enjoy. The reason that we have those is because
we have people who, over the years, have spent a lot of time on
science, technology, engineering and math education," he told the
classes.
"STEM classes really are fun, and you get
to do a lot of experiments. You get to find ways to leverage new
ways to use data to prove results or invent something new," he
added.
He also talked to the students about the importance of
diversity and teamwork. "One thing we do have in America is our
diversity. Like data, magic happens when you start bringing
differences together, and you can imagine how to do new things
better and old things better. A team works together and embraces
everyone's awesome uniqueness," he said.
Fifth-grade teacher
Deacon Jones said his students made direct connections to Spirk's
talk because they do a STEM fair project every year. "They have to
collect data for that, and that's an ongoing thing where they have
multiple trials, so when they're able to connect what they're doing
in class to real world events or actions by parents, it makes it
more relevant. And, as a teacher, when things are relevant, we
recognize that [the information] is going to stick and stay." Jones
also noted that students as young as kindergartners learn about STEM
at the school.
Jones was impressed with Spirk's comments
about how learning should never stop. "I really appreciate the fact
that he pushed the idea of being a lifelong learner," he said. "When
you exit one grade level or if you graduate, you're not finished.
We're always learning and growing because things are changing within
the world around us."
Eli Spirk said he enjoyed his father's
session. "You don't really expect to see your father show up in the
middle of the school day and talk to you about what he does with
some of the other kids in your class. It was a fun experience," he
said.
Using Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer
of e-commerce giant Amazon as an example, the youngster noted, "He's
really rich and had to be really smart to get there, but we have
more chances and opportunities. Even though [he's] great now, [that]
doesn't mean we can't get better than him."
When he grows up, Eli Spirk said
he wants to be a professional sports player "or like my dad," he
said. "I want to work with data."
Classmate Preston Cain is
11 and agreed that the session and experiment were fun to learn, and
he said he likes to collect data. He also learned the importance of
continuing to learn "even if you're not in school anymore," adding,
"STEM is applied in so many aspects of the world." Preston said he
wants to be a professional baseball player or an architect.
Children need to understand that the proliferation and the
democratization of data information that has occurred since adults
were children is unbelievable, Spirk said. "If there's something you
don't know about but you're really curious about, you have an
ability to go [to] online courses. And you can take those right now,
oftentimes for free. You can learn and gain those skills on your
own," he said, adding many ways exist today to gain knowledge and
skills. "You just have to tell your parents, and they can find that
virtually free capability. And I think that really is going to be
important in the competition continuum with China as a pacing
challenge," he added.
"What I really wanted them to take away
is [that] data is the 'now' and the future and the importance of it
(data) if we want to keep this great nation of ours safe and
secure," Spirk said of his school teaching. "We really need to
prioritize our focus on doubling down on those STEM classes and
taking them seriously. [Students] have an ability to do that right
now — to be the smartest kid in their class, to be the greatest
nation on the planet and stay there. It's just going to take getting
back to the basics."
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