Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are foundational to building a career in today’s technology-driven world. It’s important for kids to learn and understand STEM in order to find work, develop a career and even translate the skills they learn into various aspect of life. STEM can teach planning, approach to understanding, and exploration.
Here are a few famous faces who built their career by participating in extracurricular activities and tinkered outside of school.
Science: Richard Dawkins
Scientist Richard Dawkins is most known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He spent a lot of time writing and working with other kids on science activities. He has now gone on to write his best-selling book on evolution, The Selfish Gene, as well as its follow up, The Extended Phenotype.
Technology & Engineering: Elon Musk
Billionaire Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and founder of SpaceX and Tesla, is a perfect example of what taking advantage of resources outside school can do. Musk first had his taste of entrepreneurship when he coded and sold a computer game called Blaster. His drive for knowledge in different forms help lead him to these revolutionary companies.
Mathematics: Terence Tao
Mathematician Terence Tao was gifted from an early age. At just 9 years old, Tao scored a 760 on the SATs and was able to take university level math (for reference, anything over 700 was part of the John Hopkins’ Study of Excellence). He participated in tons of competitions and earned some awards for first place. Undergoing competitions and being around other kids who loved math assisted with his growth! It is important to be surrounded by inspiration, items and people alike.
There you have it – living famous faces in the STEM fields. Their success can be attributed back to competition, being surrounded by like-minded people, and an involvement in extracurricular activities (including programming and robotics).