Fitria Kurniasih and Kendid Mahmudi visited several Owatonna elementary schools last week to learn more about STEM education. (Photo courtesy of Owatonna Public Schools)
Dr. Jillian Roehrig sits with a student while visiting with Professors Fitria Kurniasih and Kended Mahmudi last week. (Photo courtesy of Owatonna Public Schools)
Two university professors made their way to multiple elementary schools in Owatonna all the way from Indonesia last week while they were visiting the University of Minnesota as part of a research project.
Fitria Kurniasih and Kendid Mahmudi visited several Owatonna elementary schools last week to learn more about STEM education. (Photo courtesy of Owatonna Public Schools)
District STEM Coordinator Dr. Tom Meagher said the story of how Professor Kendid Mahmudi and Professor Firtia Kurniasih of the University of Jember, located just outside of Bali, began more than two years ago after a colleague, Gillian Roehrig, was asked to teach a life science STEM lesson in Indonesia.
“It was a spontaneous thing. Gillian is a chemist and physicist and I’m a biologist so we compliment each other,” Meagher said. “So she had reached out to me for ideas for the workshop and the two visiting professors had attended. They received a grant to visit the United States and they wanted to spend a month learning from Gill. She said, ‘If you want to learn about elementary teachers and premier STEM education, you need to go to Owatonna.’”
The visiting professors were able to stop by classrooms in Lincoln, Washington and Mckinley elementary schools. Students were excited to share and explain the various activities and lessons they were participating in during the visit.
Dr. Jillian Roehrig sits with a student while visiting with Professors Fitria Kurniasih and Kended Mahmudi last week. (Photo courtesy of Owatonna Public Schools)
In one class students were working on coding on iPads, Meagher said they were explaining to the professors the programs they were trying to do to solve a problem. Others were demonstrating rubber band motor cars and explaining how they were able to build them.
“A lot of the students were excited to be able to ask the professors questions about their country,” Meagher said. “It’s exciting because the kids are able to talk to these adults and find out first hand what it’s like to live in a place that is thousands of islands and never has snow.”
The professors talked with students about Indonesia and how over 100 languages are spoken throughout the country, and each of them speaks five different languages. In Indonesia, they said kids start learning English in first grade.
“We don’t get foreign language opportunities here until middle school,” Meagher said. “So it was awe inspiring for the students to know that first graders are learning a second or third language at that age.”
Following the day filled with visits, Meagher said both Kurniasih and Mahmudi were very impressed with Owatonna schools.
“They were very impressed with the kids’ ability to ask questions and be curious and articulate their own thoughts and ideas,” he said. “They were also amazed at how well our students worked in teams and small groups. They expected it to be loud and distracting but they were quiet and studious and the students and teachers would ask questions and interact with each other.”
In Indonesia, teacher and student relationships are more “traditional” in that students are expected to be quiet, listen to the teacher and there is a big emphasis on memorization. Moving away from this teaching model is a large reason why the professors wanted to visit Owatonna to bring a similar learning model like ours and teach that model to STEM educators in Indonesia.
“One thing I’ve found is teachers do so much intuitively in the way they instruct students. When they get the opportunity to talk and ask questions, it helps them be more cognizant of their art and ability to think and reflect,” Meagher said. “Often we teach and move on and this gives our teacher the chance to showcase what they do and I think that’s unique. I hope that giving them the opportunity to do this helps them feel good about themselves.”
Having the professors visit Owatonna schools is just one of many ways Meagher is working to showcase Owatonna schools and it’s students internationally.
Last year a researcher from Turkey visited with eighth grade students. In turn those students were able to share their projects with students in Egypt. Meagher said he is working on building a partnership with a STEM school in Ciaro.
In February, students will be sharing research ideas with Japanese students as part of a STEM Cafe. Connecting with students in other parts of the world is important to bring about a closeness and firsthand knowledge and sharing of different customs with other students according to Meagher.
“What we are working to do is to try and help Owatonna schools be part of this international, world class stage to show off what we do in the classrooms and how our teachers teach,” Meagher said. “I believe we are truly world class and I think the ideas we use here can be shared internationally because it’s fantastic to watch what our teachers do in classrooms and see the kids learning.”
