Let’s Create a Modern STEM Workshop! (LS-PL-697)
Are you a STEM innovator?
Each of us has a head full of ideas or ideas that we have always wanted to implement, but did not know how to go about it. Now it’s easier than ever!
Thanks to generally available free digital tools and virtually unlimited access to new technologies, we are able to create a prototype of any item in just a few days.
By buying a low-budget 3D printer, you can turn an idea into something real! Do you have an idea? – make it real!
What the workshop work teaches:
• visualizing ideas and creating a concept drawing,
• effective research in search of ideas and similar products,
• spatial design in the Tinkercad / Fusion 360 program,
• operating digital tools supporting work on the product,
• creating a project cost estimate and its evaluation.
Where can you do this WORKSHOP?
These other things you can now carry out at a low cost at your school or home!
Nowadays, the set is used to design electronic circuits, model their work and create project production files, which are sent to manufacturers of boards, housings, and mechanical details. The computer allows the components to be virtually matched before they are made with some technology.
The computer and its software are closely related to other devices that used to cost a fortune, and nowadays literally found their way to the proverbial thatch. Among the more important ones, I would mention logic analyzers, programmers / debuggers, CNC milling machines (Computerized Numerical Control) and 3D printers. Many of these utilities are available for free with full or little functionality limitation, and full edu versions are available for schools or students.
STEM skills
There are multiple reasons why STEM skills are considered more important than ever. Here are just some of them:
- 21st century challenges of both globalization and a knowledge-based economy create an imperative to develop STEM skills;
- STEM skills help to bridge the ethnic and gender gaps sometimes found in math and science fields;
- The global economy is changing;
- Current jobs are disappearing due to automation;
- New jobs are emerging as an outcome of technological advances;
- The continual advances in technology are changing the way students learn, connect and interact every day;
- STEM Skills are critical to school success and life;
- Employer demand for STEM qualifications and skills is high;
- 75 percent of jobs in the fastest growing industries require workers with STEM skills;
- STEM occupations are growing. They are nearly double that of other occupations;
- The wage for STEM jobs is about 70% more than the national average
- In 20 years 80% of jobs will require technical skills. (EU Bureau of Statistics)
What are STEM skills?
STEM skills relate subject specific skills in science, mathematics, and engineering to generic skills and dispositions. This list may vary slightly, but the following skills and dispositions are generic and frequently cited in references related to STEM:
- Creativity ,
- Inquiry Skills ,
- Critical analysis ,
- Teamwork and collaboration,
- Initiative ,
- Communication,
- Digital literacy,
- Problem solving.
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Public Domain Mark 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek.