Nurturing the Heart with STEM

By Jackie Rojas, SSYP Jesuit Volunteer Corps Fellow

The theme this year for B-READY “Nurture the Heart, Nourish the Mind, Build Community where all can Thrive” has been a great inspiration in creating the STEM lessons for this year. When it comes to the study of science, technology, engineering, and math, nourishing the mind is seen as one of the top priorities, closely followed by the sharing of data and discoveries within the scientific community and the world. Rarely is nurturing the heart thought of as an instrumental element to education in the sciences when, in reality, nurturing the heart is an essential first step in STEM education and education at large. The mind cannot be nourished at the expense of the heart. 

One of the many ways that the heart can be nurtured in education is through the power of representation. Especially in fields like STEM, there is a lack of diversity and representation. The percentage of women and POCs that make up the STEM field is alarmingly low making it harder for these communities to feel valued, heard, and seen in their field. A powerful first step in combating this lack of representation is by instilling in students the unquestionable reality that anyone can be a scientist, engineer, or mathematician so that one day they can feel empowered to join these fields even in the face of disproportionate representation. The simplest way to instill this truth is by uplifting the voices and stories of women and POCs in the STEM field. Seeing their faces, learning about their research, and listening to their accomplishments brings solace and security to any hurting heart that longs to hear if they can do it, I can do it too.  

The STEM lessons for this trimester have tackled representation by, first and foremost, uplifting the voices and stories of several scientists. Each lesson is focused on a specific topic and paired with a scientist. During our lessons about space, astronauts Mae Jemison, Ellen Ochoa, and Franklin Chang-Díaz were uplifted as the first Black woman, Latina, and Latino to go to space. The most recent lesson focused on planetary geologist Adriana Ocampo, along with the layers of the Earth. This exposure to a diverse group of STEMists will continue throughout the trimester to dispel the stereotypes of what scientists, engineers, and mathematicians are supposed to look like. Finally, there will be a culminating project at the end of the trimester that will allow every B-READY participant to create their very own superhero scientist based on the influential people they learned about. This is one of many ways of nurturing the heart, but its end result is what makes room for the flame of wonder, commitment, and resilience to shine a bright and steady path toward the nourishing of the mind and building of community.