TEDx Santa Barbara: Bringing Heart to Science Education
In Making Waves Conversations by Mark Sylvester
Mark Sylvester: So let’s, I’m gonna dig into something you said right at the end there with the sustainability development, the Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations. Tell me how that work fits in with the work that you’re doing because we don’t normally hear about those and education at this level. At least I haven’t, so help us understand that.
Asude Altintas: Perfect, what we do is to combine scientific knowledge, with Sustainable Development Goals, and we combine STEM with Sustainable Development Goals. Let me give you an example. We have a science teacher, Dr. Meryl Batcheldor. She’s talking about children who don’t have electricity in Ethiopia, and the harmful effects of kerosene lamps that they are using while studying, and she’s explaining how to use gravity to help produce electricity with a simple pulley system.
And she shows how to make a gravity to lamp until you in this way, first understand the needs of children in Ethiopia, and then they develop some prototypes with Twin Kits and then they get motivated because they are part of the solution. This is just one example from our platform and content.
So in each content will connect and combine STEM topics and experiments with Sustainable Development Goals. The goals were agreed by all member states by the United Nations to achieve for a sustainable world. So in this experiment, for example, it was SDG Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reduced inequality.
Maybe you can show number three, our visual number three. With Twin Kits children, create smart canes for visually disabled people and line following autonomous car to prevent car accidents, or electric car with renewable energy, smart farms for the villages, or other projects and beyond.
In the times of change, they can be more resilient. Instead of feeling despair, that they can take action and they can repair
Asude Altintas, CEO & Co-Founder of Twin Science
They first understand how technology works and the science behind it. And then they use their skills for the betterment of humanity. And it’s also very important for their well-being, Mark, because if they in the times of change, they can be more resilient. Instead of feeling despair, they can take action and they can repair .
And, we are working with children aged 8 to 12 years old because physicist Michio Kaku also drew attention to the age of 10. Because at that age, children discover the lives besides their parents, and their curiosity begins and it ends around the age of 16.
So it’s necessary to inspire them between two ages and nurture their scientific curiosity.
