Say you will have a child on your own or if you already have one, do you want him or her to become an engineer?
If your answer is yes, new research says that you should introduce the kid to a hobby related STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Doing so in his or her formative years could leave a lifelong interest and shape their career path.
It could be any hobby: As extreme as going on a nature trip to the woods, visiting the science museum, and stargazing; as simple as keeping pets, fixing things at home, and making the child solve arithmetic in daily life.
A research by academics at North Carolina State University indicated that among the 3,000 adult hobbyists who take part in astronomy, beekeeping, birdwatching, robotics, environmental monitoring, falconry, gardening, home brewing, model building and rock collecting, more than half of them first participated in the 10 hobbies mentioned during their youth. It was concluded that the data “illustrates how crucial childhood experiences are to encouraging lifelong explorations in STEM.”
What’s interesting is that teachers aren’t the strongest influence in taking up the activities among any of the hobby groups. Instead, family was rated as the greatest influence on hobbyists involved with gardening, rock and fossil collecting and beekeeping. Astronomy and robotics hobbyists rated “significant events” as having a high or very high level of influence on the start of their interest.
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“This work found family and friends to be quite influential when sparking an initial interest in a hobby,” the authors in the study said.
“Children who don’t have these opportunities through their family and friend social network may be less likely to become STEM-interested adults, and may also be less likely to be interested in a future career in STEM.
“This presents a profound opportunity for … teachers and other non-family community members who spend time with youth to play a greater role in supporting youth interest development in free-choice STEM pursuits.”
The new research comes as a suggestion, perhaps an encouragement, to parents to let their kids lead this life without being too pushy. They only need to establish habits or activities that might keep them interested in such fields.
On a more important note, there is a shortage of engineers, scientists, and mathematics on a global scale. Progress across many fields and industries is affected due to this, which is why adults have to make sure that there will be enough thinkers and problem solvers to come for the next generation.
Source: The Guardian
