How to Make Your Child Love STEM

Kevin P. Chavous: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, STEM occupations are projected to grow by over 10% from 2023 to 2033. That significantly outpaces the 4% growth rate for all other occupations, including healthcare support roles and office administration jobs. Preparing students for these careers requires educators to think outside the box.

Eric Olson, principal of Idaho Technical Career Academy, is one of those leaders. His creative approach to teaching, including developing innovative tools like the board game Fics, is inspiring students and shaping the future of education.

Eric Olsen: The students aren’t always going to enjoy learning. They’re not always going to enjoy the math.

But I want them to enjoy the process of coming to class, being able to know that they can solve problems that maybe they thought they didn’t have confidence in before.

Kevin P. Chavous: How can creativity and innovation make learning more engaging and effective? And what can educators and parents do to keep their students engaged? This is what I want to know. Eric, welcome to the show. Once again, Eric Olson, welcome to the show. I’m excited to have you on for a number of reasons. One is your creativity and obviously you enjoy what you do.

But I want to talk a little bit about your journey, because through it all, you really, at your core, at the very beginning—you’ve been a math teacher, isn’t that right?

Eric Olsen: So I’ve been a math teacher since I moved to Idaho. So for the last 13 years, I’ve had a couple of careers—so not your typical career pathway, I guess you would say.

I started off in engineering and didn’t love it. I got a degree in teaching math and physics and then I went back to school and I got a graduate degree in education of deaf and hard of hearing. My wife and I were looking around for where we wanted to raise our kids, so when we moved out to Idaho, I knew I would be shifting careers. I went back to my roots in education and I found a high school math teaching job and went to it.

I am currently on a contract where I split my time between teaching and doing administration. And I really enjoy it because I still have a foot in the classroom.

Kevin P. Chavous: So talk to me about the Idaho Technical Career Academy—its mission and purpose and how things are going.

Eric Olsen: So, Idaho Technical Career Academy is a virtual charter school. So any student in Idaho—we cover the entire state. Idaho’s a large state. We have a lot of rural communities.

We don’t have any huge cities like L.A. or New York. Boise’s our biggest city, and I have students and teachers all around the state of Idaho.

We do live classes, so just like you and I are sitting here talking together, I run classes that way—we all do. And the focus for us is—we have all the regular classes that a traditional brick-and-mortar school has: math, social studies, history, English, and those types of classes.

But beyond that, it’s in the name—the Career Academy. So we have some pathways and students choose a pathway. They can even switch a pathway or do more than one. Maybe they want to do pharmacy technician—they can go down that pathway. Or they want to do something with agriculture—they can go down that pathway. And those pathways are evolving all the time based on feedback from industry. So they’re constantly evolving so that students are coming out with certifications—for example, Adobe certification, Excel certification, or an Ag certification—and with the skills they’re going to need to move forward after high school.

And, as I said before, I really like that aspect of this school and other schools that offer students some other options for getting real-life skills that are going to prove useful to them, one way or another, when they move on to the next step after high school.

Kevin P. Chavous: Yeah, let’s talk about Glyphics.

This is a game that you created, and when I heard about this and looked at some of the videos and the work you’ve done, I was reminded of this popular saying, and I want to read it since I want to get it right. It says that there’s no such thing as a student who doesn’t like STEM—they just haven’t found the right problem to solve.

And when you talk about creativity in education—just talk about Glyphics, because I do think that quote really applies. So many young people have been conditioned to believe that they don’t like math, they don’t like STEM, they don’t like this, they don’t like that. But once it comes down to how they’re introduced to it, how it’s brought to them in a way that’s creative and fun and engaging—all that’s wrapped into your approach with this game, Glyphics.

Eric Olsen: So Glyphics is a game that I came up with on the kitchen table during the first summer of COVID when we were just hanging out. Basically, it’s like Pictionary, if you’re familiar with that game, where you try to draw what the word is. And instead, in this case, you are using pre-made plastic pieces to create the words.

My wife likes to refer to it as “Pictionary for people that can’t draw,” which is as good an explanation as any.

And, speaking of STEM, I was trying to come up with this game and I was using household objects like pens and pencils and things, and there’s just not that many shapes lying around the house.

And my son, who was only in third or fourth grade, said, “Why don’t you get a 3D printer and make your own pieces?” That was his suggestion. We got a 3D printer, and I had no idea how to use it. We had to figure it out. He got me a program called Tinkercad that they use in elementary school.

And I used this Tinkercad program to start making pieces for this game. I’ve had the privilege of seeing some amazing math teachers and science teachers that absolutely engage students and make them enjoy earth science, enjoy biology, maybe even enjoy math from time to time. That’s one of my goals, actually.

Students aren’t always going to enjoy learning. They’re not always going to enjoy math. But I want them to enjoy the process of coming to class, working together, being able to know that they can solve problems that maybe they thought they didn’t have confidence in before.

And so there’s a lot of things we can do in math class that aren’t just math that can carry on beyond the classroom.

Kevin P. Chavous: How has that game been received by your students? And a follow-up—what has happened just as you’ve put it out there in a viral way?

Eric Olsen: So the school has been very supportive, and the students have been very supportive. Some students have actually gone on Amazon and left reviews.

And recently, a local news station in Boise did an interview with me and a bunch of my students and another teacher about my newest game, Flip Seven. And that was so much fun. We went into the studio with the game, with the students, and we actually played the game. And then they actually asked the students a couple of questions about the game and about our school.

It was a great experience. The students loved it. Their parents were really happy. I was very grateful to the station for bringing us on and bringing the students into the studio. Really a very memorable experience—a lot of fun.

Kevin P. Chavous: It all speaks to this idea of creativity in education, and how education and learning is delivered to students. Talk a little bit about why that’s important and the change you see just by introducing this game to certain students—who may otherwise not be engaged—but suddenly their interest is piqued and it bears some fruit in terms of their involvement in school, attendance, and being engaged in the whole deal.

Eric Olsen: A lot of the students that self-select to go to a virtual school are there for a reason. We don’t know what that reason is necessarily—maybe anxiety or whatever it happens to be. So engaging them virtually can be a huge challenge.

This year I’ve been experimenting a little bit. In addition to my normal math curriculum, I’ve started to introduce some mini TED Talks on motivation, getting enough sleep, success as a journey. And they’re not me, by the way—they’re not me preaching. I went out and found the first couple, and then I actually turned it over to students. I said, “I’ve been trying to figure out what I think you need, but really you know best what you need.” So I gave them an assignment to find materials and actually make a response—like some questions that go along with these five to seven-minute videos. And I’ve been assigning the students videos to other students. Fascinating.

And, like you said, stuff that’s going to transfer outside of the curriculum—or in addition to the curriculum—or help students engage, which is what I’m looking for. Engage and think about—if they’re already engaging, great. If they’re not engaging, why are they not engaging? Is there something I can do to help them engage? Is there something they can do on their own to motivate themselves to jump into the fray in class and not be afraid to raise their hand and answer questions?

Kevin P. Chavous: That’s great stuff. As I hear you talk about engagement, creativity, different ways to engage students—it really comes down to the most important thing in the teacher-student relationship: and that’s relationship. You have to build a relationship that’s based on trust so the students buy into you as their teacher—or their learning guide, which is probably a more appropriate title now.

And in order to do that, you have to think outside the box. So kudos to you for doing that.

The curriculum is still what it is. But how you get the students to pay attention to it really is based on that relationship and those engagement tools.

One last area I want to talk to you about. We’d be remiss not to ask you—as a math teacher—about how artificial intelligence is transforming many fields. Talk about how you think AI is changing student engagement, particularly in STEM.

Eric Olsen: I know it can be a struggle in English, with students being able to just put a prompt in and get their English paper done. One of the biggest concerns for teachers, of course, is not students using AI to help them understand the material—but students, frankly, just using the AI to do their homework.

Teachers have always been a pretty creative bunch. One of the things I’ve done in my class is now require students to make little videos of themselves explaining how to do the math. I feel like that’s a little harder to do via AI.

So I’ve gone through and replaced some of my more traditional multiple choice or short-answer formative assessments—quizzes and things like that—with these short little videos. I call them “reels” because they’re used to TikTok reels. So I just call them “you are the teacher” reels. You’re the teacher. You’re teaching the material.

I don’t just do it to avoid the AI. I also do it because the research is pretty clear that the highest form of learning is when you can teach the material. Any teacher will tell you they really learned their material the first year they taught it.

And good teachers continue to learn from their students—if they don’t get too stuck in their ways. You give a student a chance to do something with the material, and then they explain it in a way you’ve never really thought of before. They come up with a way and you’re like, “Wow, that’s great. I’m gonna use that next year when I’m teaching this, because that was so awesome what you just said.”

Kevin P. Chavous: How have the students responded to this new approach?

Eric Olsen: Some of them are really having fun with it. “Hey, Mr. Olsen, it’s me again, here’s our next…” Kind of hamming it up a little bit.

And they realize why I’m doing it. Actually, one of those little TED Talks that I did was “Why does Mr. Olsen make us do videos?” And it explains the research behind it—if they can talk their way through the problem, then they’re really digesting it and going to retain it. Whereas if they just listen to me blab on and then write it down, they might have 20% recall as opposed to 80%. It’s a huge difference.

Some students procrastinate and then finally do it. And then they say—not surprisingly—“Oh, Mr. Olsen, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be.” And I say, “Well, don’t tell me, tell the rest of the class.” And they do! They get on the mic and tell the rest of the class, “You guys need to do your videos. They’re not as bad as you think they are.”

Kevin P. Chavous: Eric Olson, I appreciate all you’re doing. Good luck with the ITCA, and thank you for joining us on What I Want to Know.

Eric Olsen: It’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me on.

Kevin P. Chavous: Thanks for listening to What I Want to Know. Be sure to follow and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app so you can explore other episodes and dive into our discussions on the future of education. And write a review of the show!

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That’s hashtag #WIWTK. For more information on Stride and online education, visit stridelearning.com.

I’m your host, Kevin P. Chavous. Thank you for joining What I Want to Know.