Proposals for Quality Education in DR Public Schools Outlined at STEM Conference

On April 11, 2014 FUNGLODE and GFDD hosted an important one day conference at FUNGLODE’s headquarters in Santo Domingo entitled: "STEMWorld: Strategies for Quality Education" ("STEMWorld: Estrategias para una educación de calidad").

The aim of the conference was to present the experience of implementing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) methodology in school to members of the National
Education Pact (Pacto Educativo Nacional), which is proposing to modernize the Dominican education system. Already widely used in the United States, Europe and some Latin American countries, STEM supports the learning process of students to ensure that knowledge serves as a tool for both academic and personal growth.

Carlos Amarante Baret, Minister of Education said the STEM  initiative — which is fully endorsed by FUNGLODE and GFDD’s President, Leonel Fernández– is timely because it comes after the signing of
a pact for education that lays down all the necessary changes in curricula content. Baret stated that the Ministry of Education (MINERD) is moving towards the creation of an exemplary public education system. "The time has come for us to improve the quality of education in public schools," he said.

Discussing STEM’s implementation in the DR, Baret said that MINERD and the Ministry of Higher Education in Science and Technology (MESCyT) must
reach an agreement with experts in this methodology to make the project more viable, and thereby strengthen the quality of the Dominican education system.

Bill Cassidy, leader of the STEM team of experts said that the economy of the Dominican Republic will advance with its implementation due to it becoming a center for recruitment of human resources for international industries. He affirmed that the STEM system could be effectively applied as the country has the will to
move forward and that various sectors are cooperating to achieve strategic and quality education.

The representatives of Smithsonian Science Education Center in Washington DC, Eric Nastasi and Amy D’Amico, presented examples of how to incorporate the STEM system within the curriculum, from kindergarten through to eighth grade. The session included a practical exercise in which participants between the ages of 10 to 13 were separated into groups of 2 and 3 to
construct a moving vehicle out of component parts provided by Nastasi and D’Amico.

As part of the conference, both Claudia Catrain, Executive Director of the Propagas Foundation and Director of the Young Scientists Program of the Dominican Republic (YSPDR), and Izaskun Uzcanga, spoke about the YSPDR program, which seeks to contribute to the development and to strengthen the pedagogical and didactic elements of teaching.

The afternoon session
was aimed at introducing participants to the process of preparing teachers to apply STEM methodology effectively in classrooms. The President of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Joel Bloom, presented the strategy used by his institution to implement the STEM system in the educational processes as well as in the University’s business incubation.

Among the instructors who participated in the meeting are: Willard Gingerich, Vice President of Academic Affairs
at Montclair State University, and Douglas Bryan Larkin and Sumi Hagiwara, from the same university.

Related links:
http://www.ssec.si.edu/
http://www.fundpropagas.com/
http://www.njit.edu
www.montclair.edu