(An Article by Sherman Chen)
What is STEM education?
To be honest, I actually didn't know a lot about STEM until maybe 1-2 years ago. I heard about STEM while I was doing a workshop at FOSSASIA 2016. Just something that was being mentioned by a fellow speaker at the event. I began learning more about STEM and saw it's growing demand and value within the country where I'm from - Singapore. Over the next decade, with the local government's support, encouragement and likely billions of dollars of investment into the Internet of Things infrastructure in Singapore, there is no better time than now to ride on the wave and make STEM education available to the masses.
Science. Technology. Engineering. Math.
Actually, to be honest, my strongest subject when I was back in secondary school (ages 13-17) were in all of the above mentioned, except technology since that wasn't available to me until I stepped into polytechnic (Diploma education). But nonetheless, these subjects are very close to my heart and it's not just an interest, but it is actually what I am really strong at as well. Sure, I might not know everything there is to science, or math, or engineering, but I know enough I suppose. The idea of making STEM education & learning available to the young people really excites me a lot. And that is one of the main reasons why I saw onlinelabseries as the perfect opportunity to step into STEM education & learning.
Discover Electronics Kit by SparkleLabs - "Electronics Made Fun"
About two weeks back, I went online and ordered for myself a Discover Arduino Bundle by SparkLabs, but in the busyness of their order processing, they kinda made a mistake on my order and sent me just the Discover Electronics Kit. Well, in the end, I wasn't disappointed eventhough I could've received another Arduino Uno (it'll be my fourth one in 6 months). Well, my goal of ordering the kit online was part of my personal efforts to source for the best educational electronics kit from around the world (or what is on the market right now). So far, I have discovered a few brands that I think are worthy to make the list and SparkleLabs has just joined that list. Other brands that I would actually want to get my hands on includes Adeept & Seed Studio with their Grove Sensors.
The diagrams are clear and the notations are big and cute. It certainly is a material that youths will love to following along with.
I think the main selling point here is that the kit has a really nice booklet that goes along with it. The number of exercises are probably enough to cover a 2 to 3 session workshop so I would say that it's fairly adequate. Although I think there are actually a few more electrical learning concepts that can be added to the booklet. Perhaps more advanced topics. (I have yet to receive their "Discover Arduino Manual", so I will save my judgment until after I have received it.) The diagrams are clear and the notations are big and cute. It certainly is a material that youths will love to following along with.
The only feedback I have provided so far is that they should improve the sealing for the packaging. They could use a plastic strip on one side and a sticky tape on the other. That way users can seal the pack if they want to put the kit aside and come back to it later.
MakeBlock - Robotics + Make Block Neurons
I've reached out to MakeBlock about 1.5 weeks ago proposing a way for us to collaborate and become partners so that we can officially get their backing to showcase MakeBlock's products using one of the lab series. The thing about MakeBlock is that potentially, we can also break the whole series down into 2 parts (potentially 60-sessions as well).
For the first part, we will focus on STEM and Robotics while concentrating on more introductory and intermediate lab topics. Once we have gone through that phase, the second part of the MakeBlock series will focus on more advance applications and use cases for all their products.
MakeBlock is a world leading brand when it comes to STEM education and it would give us an absolutely privilege if the partnership/sponsorship becomes a reality. Already, with an official partnership with a global brand like Samtec Inc, I believe greater things lies ahead for the platform/community.
High-Quality STEM Learning Content for Youths and Children All Around the World
It might seem like we are trying to achieve the impossible, but I believe that in reality, the future is already within our grasps. With a Live Streaming platform like LiveStream.com, we believe that spreading free education will become something of a norm in the next few years. And as technology continues to advance, more and more people in different parts of the world are also going to be able to gain access to this free learning platform.