Education in the City: STEM and Education for the Future

The Office of Education Research (OER) organised the third Education in the City webinar, in collaboration with the National Library Board, on 13 November 2020. In this webinar, titled “STEM and Education for the Future”, speakers shared about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in Singapore.

Both speakers invited the audience to think about the purposes of STEM education in Singapore, and how STEM education could change or improve the quality of our lives in the future.

The first speaker, Dr Michael Tan, OER Research Scientist, delved into a series of provocations and aspirations such as—as he titled his presentation—“If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?”. He led the audience into thinking about what should we want STEM to do in society and what is STEM good for.

Next, Assoc Prof Tan Aik Ling, Deputy Head (Teaching & Curriculum Matters) and Associate Professor in the Natural Sciences & Science Education Academic Group, spoke on the “Purposes of STEM Education”, where she challenged the audience to ponder on three main questions:

1. How are you STEM literate?
2. What do you need to know for STEM literacy?
3. How do you develop STEM literacy?

The session was attended by 128 people, and wrapped up with an engaging question and answer segment, moderated by Dr Seah Lay Hoon, OER Senior Research Scientist.

Webinar moderator and speakers: Dr Seah Lay Hoon (top left), Assoc Prof Tan Aik Ling (top right), and Dr Michael Tan (bottom)
 
Watch the recording of the session here: