Bring STEM to Life with Engaging Digital Enrichment Resources for Grades 3–6! Inspire your students and/or children with STEM history and current events, skill-building activities, and daily science highlights that make learning fun and meaningful.
(Empathetic) Practice Will Make Progress
Technologists especially love to say technology itself is agnostic. While that may be true, it is also true that those who control the technology (and scientific research) control how it may be misused. We continue to accept a new technology or a scientific advance without first wrestling deeply with the ethics or consequences of its use before implementation. Yes, there are STEM ethicists—but when do we listen to them? Too often, technology advances faster than ethical considerations, and by the time we start asking the right questions, the damage has been done. The nightmares have already escaped the box. While cultivating a passion for and skills in STEM disciplines in young people, we must also develop the capacity for empathy and recognition of humanity. The tools and procedures we create through the sciences and different technologies are for people, ALL people, and not just a few. Empathy cannot be an afterthought. Institutions must prioritize humanity, kindness, and compassion alongside the scientific and technical education needed to develop the next generation of STEM leaders. Our present reality shows the consequences when they are not. Business (and science) is never just business (or just science).
Empathy, rooted in compassion for others, must drive decisions about what to develop, how to design, and what to create. Considering the needs of people, rather than ego and profit, should be a reflexive practice, not an exception.
A commitment to ethics and compassionate care for every patient can only be expected when empathy is at the core of those providing it. This goes for the use of technology and the products of engineering as well. We must demand that empathy be an included and explicit habit within STEM at all levels and disciplines. It is the only way we can transform our world. Links Medical mythbuster Joel Bervell, MD, on how to teach kids about medicine and address misinformation Rising star of the medical field, Dr. Joel Bervell has been outspoken and steadfast in educating the public about the racial disparities in medical practice. Known as the '‘Medical Mythbuster.” the Ghanaian-American shares the hidden history of medicine and biases in healthcare and other industries. Here’s a great interview about Dr. Bervell and how to teach children about medical issues. Enhancing STEM education through emotional intelligence and counseling techniques This paper offers concrete solutions to ensure a holistic approach to STEM education and how vital it is for students to be well-rounded, well-adjusted, emotional human beings throughout their academic career in becoming STEM professionals. From the research paper: STEM professionals often grapple with ethical considerations and societal implications of their work. Emotional intelligence encourages ethical decision-making by encouraging empathy and ethical reasoning (Carroll & Shaw, 2013; Cook, 2020). Students equipped with emotional intelligence are more likely to consider the broader implications of their work, fostering a sense of responsibility and ethical engagement in their scientific and technological endeavors (Nakamura, Shernoff, & Hooker, 2009; Ryback, 2012; Zhoc, Chung, & King, 2018). In conclusion, integrating emotional intelligence into STEM education is an augmentation and a strategic imperative.
Quote of the WeekFinally, we'll let Dr. Bervell have the last word about the importance of DEI and medical practice. Diversity, equity, inclusion one, is really important because it goes beyond race. It goes to thinking about all aspects of our social identities and how that interacts with the healthcare field. And two, it's necessary just because the patient population we serve is diverse in itself. So often there are places in medicine where it doesn't make sense to use race. Whether that's through an equation that's about kidney functioning or about lung functioning. So being able to talk about DEI in that lens allows us to critically evaluate why we use race-specific issues. If we're not able to accurately critique why race is included in systems, and whether that's harming or helping patients, we're unable to do our job of do no harm. Dr. Joel Bervell, A medical mythbuster's mission to improve health care Thank you for reading! We hope you found this newsletter valuable. Let us know–we would love to hear from you! Please share it with anyone you think would be interested and encourage them to sign up for the mailing list. Next newsletter will be sent on Friday, February 28, 2025. Regards, LB EdPub
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LB Educational Publishing
Bring STEM to Life with Engaging Digital Enrichment Resources for Grades 3–6! Inspire your students and/or children with STEM history and current events, skill-building activities, and daily science highlights that make learning fun and meaningful.
Missing Image From One of Our National Databases Protecting Recovered American Histories from the Restoration of Truth and Sanity by Cherie Levent DeVille 18 April 2025 (Did we end up in your Spam folder? Please mark lbedpub@gmail.com as NOT SPAM to receive our newsletters in your Inbox. You won't want to miss anything! You can send us a message at that address as well.) We released one of our first books, The Path to Juneteenth, as a FREE download! We would love for anyone interested in the...
Problem-Solving Is A Lost Art - Critical Thinking Is The Key 6 April 2025 Our offices moved! We've been settling in but we're back now! Our April calendars are out, and the May one should be out at least a week earlier than the end of the month. We will be putting out a 2025 - 2026 school year calendar set of downloads for educators. These will be great to supplement your children's (or students') education about the contribution of women and POC STEM trailblazers. Scheduled for release:...
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Frederick Douglass