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System Analysis for STEM

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<strong>System</strong>s <strong>Analysis</strong> in Education?<br />

Page 6-1<br />

Engineers have long understood the value of subjecting an activity to a systems analysis. One aspect of the systems<br />

analysis is developing a flow diagram that recognizes the necessary centers of actions and the flows that connect them.<br />

Inherently, there are feedback loops that must exist to ensure the coordination of actions that makes the system succeed.<br />

⇒A <strong>STEM</strong> <strong>System</strong>⇐ applies a flow diagram that shows the principal stakeholders and the flow of personnel among the<br />

stakeholders. Taking the high school stakeholder as referring to classroom activities that engage all students, the flow<br />

diagram <strong>for</strong> early 21 st century <strong>STEM</strong> education (Figure 6-1) indicates no effective feedback loop between the science-rich<br />

and the high school. (Note that most of the very valuable <strong>STEM</strong> activities sponsored by the science-rich accommodate a<br />

small subset of high school students as described elsewhere.)<br />

Failure in a feedback loop or its lack of existence may have catastrophic results. Early in the Industrial Revolution, a New<br />

England valley became home to many companies making machine-tools, the foundation devices <strong>for</strong> mechanical industrial<br />

production. For a century, the education community in that valley supplied a continuing source of very trainable new<br />

employees to the industry. By coincidence, a severe hiring slowdown and a school improvement program occurred<br />

simultaneously over a spread of several years. Lacking the feedback loop to the industry, school personnel decided that<br />

their vocational programs and shop courses were no longer needed. Demand <strong>for</strong> the highly individualized products of the<br />

industry returned, but the now purely academic school programs were not developing personnel with skills needed <strong>for</strong> the<br />

industry. Unable to find suitable entry-level employees, many companies moved their operations and employment abroad<br />

and the economy of the valley became severely depressed. All young people were leaving the area to find office and<br />

business jobs that did not exist in the valley. The negative economic development was reversed only when the necessary<br />

feedback loop became re-established when the CEO of one company considering moving offshore decided to find out why<br />

they could no longer find the previously available personnel by meeting with a school principal. Soon, appropriate school<br />

programs and courses reappeared, students became potential employees, and companies started returning. The economy<br />

of the valley recovered.


Page 6-2<br />

Brief History of Applying the Complete <strong>STEM</strong> <strong>System</strong> to Seminal Education Events<br />

The complete <strong>STEM</strong> <strong>System</strong> (Figure 6-3) does not appear to have been used during the past century to in<strong>for</strong>m significantly<br />

the decision-making process <strong>for</strong> addressing high school <strong>STEM</strong> education. Throughout the century, committees developing<br />

recommendations <strong>for</strong> high school <strong>STEM</strong> courses of year-long courses of biology, chemistry and physics appear to have used<br />

the <strong>STEM</strong> <strong>System</strong> flow diagram shown as Figure 6-2. At the beginning of the 20 th century, biology was just starting to be<br />

recognized as a unifier of a variety of fields such as botany and zoology; identification of cell organelles was still a halfcentury<br />

in the future. Chemists were just beginning to recognize the organizing value of the Periodic Table developed about<br />

a half-century earlier. Physicists were discovering subatomic particles and had not settled on the general structure of the<br />

atom; discovery of the neutron was many years in the future. Industry was working on the assembly line principle of<br />

subdividing work to reduce training and improve efficiency; chemical engineering was just starting to be<br />

recognized as a field of engineering. Developing a <strong>STEM</strong> course structure that served <strong>for</strong> more than a century was a<br />

remarkable accomplishment at this time.<br />

A look at major events seeking to improve high school <strong>STEM</strong> education over the past century suggests that some<br />

major stakeholders have been ignored consistently. The “Science-Rich” box at the top of Figure 6-3<br />

represents the 70% of <strong>STEM</strong>-trained personnel that work <strong>for</strong> industry, the 10% that work <strong>for</strong> government<br />

agencies, and the 10% that work <strong>for</strong> non-profit organizations and independent research organizations, including the<br />

professoriate that has research as its first priority. A review of the personnel engaged in decision-making<br />

events shows that very few representatives of the science-rich were engaged in the seminal education events. Modeler<br />

observed directly at many education meetings that the one or two representatives of the science-rich community typically<br />

were (usually unintentionally) ignored by the expertly articulate educators as science education improvements were<br />

designed and implemented.


Page 6-3<br />

Science-rich<br />

Industry<br />

Government Mission Agencies<br />

Post-secondary Research and Support Labs<br />

Research Organizations<br />

Local Businesses & Services<br />

Representatives<br />

0 4-5<br />

2-4 2 of 40<br />

Early 1900s<br />

Silos<br />

Institutionalized<br />

Biology<br />

Chemistry<br />

Physics<br />

Total control<br />

by educators<br />

Late 1950s &<br />

Early 1960s<br />

Post-Sputnik<br />

Projects<br />

1990s<br />

First Science<br />

Educ. Stds.<br />

Late 2000s &<br />

Early 2010s<br />

NGSS<br />

Today<br />

Silos<br />

Continued with<br />

Biology<br />

Chemistry<br />

Physics<br />

NAS, E & M Add Engineering<br />

Figure 6-3


Page 6-4<br />

As displayed in Figure 6-3, only about 10 to 20 persons represented vast numbers of <strong>STEM</strong> specialists (records showing<br />

employers of committee and task <strong>for</strong>ce members sometimes are ambiguous) <strong>for</strong> some of the most important and directionchanging<br />

events <strong>for</strong> high school <strong>STEM</strong> courses in the past century. Examination of the personnel flow in the <strong>STEM</strong> system as<br />

shown by Figure 6-2 also suggests that science-rich communities had little participation in decision-making processes to help<br />

educators determine the “right” things to teach in the limited time available, to facilitate bringing up-to-date <strong>STEM</strong><br />

in<strong>for</strong>mation into the classroom, and to provide students current in<strong>for</strong>mation about preparing <strong>for</strong> and working in <strong>STEM</strong> fields.<br />

Current <strong>STEM</strong> activities sponsored and/or operated by the science-rich tend to be episodic and often available only to<br />

students already interested sufficiently in <strong>STEM</strong> to invest extracurricular time <strong>for</strong> participation. ⇒A <strong>STEM</strong> <strong>System</strong>⇐<br />

(Figure 6-1) suggests only one of many possible ways to engage <strong>STEM</strong> specialists meaningfully in <strong>STEM</strong> classrooms at low total<br />

cost to all concerned.


Pre-Secondary<br />

H.S. Implementation<br />

University<br />

Biology Dept.<br />

Chemistry Dept.<br />

Physics Dept.<br />

Engineering Depts.<br />

⇒A <strong>STEM</strong> <strong>System</strong>⇐<br />

Military<br />

General Employment<br />

Unemployed<br />

Community College<br />

and<br />

Specialty Schools<br />

Page 6-5<br />

Student Flow<br />

Teacher Flow<br />

<strong>STEM</strong> Specialist Flow<br />

Science-Rich Community<br />

Industry<br />

Government Mission Agencies<br />

Post-secondary Institutions<br />

Research Organizations<br />

Local Businesses<br />

Services<br />

Education Dept.<br />

Figure 6-2


Teaching<br />

Team<br />

Pre-Secondary<br />

H.S. Implementation<br />

University<br />

Biology Dept.<br />

Chemistry Dept.<br />

Physics Dept.<br />

Engineering Depts.<br />

⇒A <strong>STEM</strong> <strong>System</strong>⇐<br />

Military<br />

General Employment<br />

Unemployed<br />

<strong>STEM</strong> Catalysts and<br />

Dynamos Associations<br />

National<br />

State Organizations<br />

Community College<br />

and<br />

Specialty Schools<br />

<strong>STEM</strong> Education Courses<br />

Feedback Loop<br />

Page 6-6<br />

Student Flow<br />

Teacher Flow<br />

<strong>STEM</strong> Specialist Flow<br />

Science-Rich Community<br />

Industry<br />

Government Mission Agencies<br />

Post-secondary Institutions<br />

Research Organizations<br />

Local Businesses<br />

Services<br />

Education Dept.<br />

<strong>STEM</strong> Education Courses<br />

Figure 6-1

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