Since ancient times, our grandparents have applied STEM to many areas of life, farming, and animal husbandry.
So how did our grandparents apply STEM?
Interdisciplinary knowledge from digging canals, cooking rice...
During the land reclamation process, in order to dig canals to supply water and facilitate traffic, the pioneers used torches to align the canals. In addition, adjusting the canals to avoid subsidence or hard land areas are scientific concepts that seem to only exist in today's era, but have been effectively exploited by our ancestors. Scientific and mathematical knowledge has been put into practice with vivid and effective evidence.
Similar is the digging of ditches and beds. Small parallel ditches, water flows through each other, the excavated soil is used to build up rectangular beds for planting trees. The tree roots gradually absorb water from the river along the flow of the ditches.
In addition, alluvium is a good organic fertilizer, and every year, the mud deposited under the ditch is dredged up to fertilize the plants. The interdisciplinary knowledge of mathematics, chemistry, and biology is integrated into daily work very well. That is, calculating to divide the land area to ensure the balance between ditches and beds, taking advantage of water sources for irrigation and nutrients regenerated from alluvium to fertilize plants.
Western rustic kitchen
Simple application of STEM from cooking in daily life
The water wheel is an innovative tool to reduce human effort for watering when a water trough is connected to a foot-pedaled water wheel, the wooden leaves block and pull the water to run in a circle in the trough moving according to the foot pedal, bringing water from low to high.
Cooking rice every day is truly STEM, as you have to know how to measure the amount of water and rice, the amount of heat, the time needed to cook, and when it is almost done, you have to know how to simmer it down. Just doing such a small thing, our grandparents have applied interdisciplinary knowledge wonderfully!
Military genius Nguyen Hue applied STEM
Farming tools are not only used for agricultural activities but also as powerful weapons in war or conflict. Almost every tool has a martial art attached to it and many weapons were created based on these tools.
The sickle is a variation of the sickle attached to a long pole to ambush and pull down the horse's legs. The ordinary shoulder pole becomes a powerful long stick to attack the enemy. During the farming process, farmers have known the characteristics of these tools and when there is a war, calculating how to destroy the enemy with these tools is very effective.
STEM or STEAM is something that is very close to everyday life.
The military genius Nguyen Hue applied STEM very well - the speed of movement of infantry, elephants... compared to the distance; how to move without interruption according to the marching plan. With the collected data, Nguyen Hue and the talented generals of the Tay Son dynasty had strategies to transport food and troops from Phu Xuan to Thang Long in time to fight the enemy, and the victory in the spring of the year Ky Dau 1789 is proof of that.
STEM or STEAM is something that is very close to daily life. Depending on each level of the learner, appropriate activities are designed. Teachers are the ones who guide and motivate students, not do it for them. Most importantly, students must know how to apply the knowledge they are learning to real life, not just simply scientific and technical products to compete and then ignore them!
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