Social Innovation in STEM

08 Jul Social Innovation in STEM

Welcome to Social Innovation in STEM^TM

I introduced Social Innovation in STEM in September 2016. Gradually, STEM educators are seeing that science is social and paying closer attention to the social dimension of STEM education. People are constant across all STEM education spaces and careers. People are social.

In this article, I share our concept of Social Innovation in STEM.

It is rooted in authenticity, emotional intelligence, and creativity. These are human dimensions should be encouraged and taught in STEM education.

A deliberate emphasis is being placed on messaging to disrupt the immediate and often automatic deficit paradigms evoked for many girls and women when they reflect on their experiences in STEM or as soon as they hear words like science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

We are designing a studio and marketplace exclusively for women interested in STEM careers and entrepreneurship. We are specifically designed to nurture and bring out girls’ and women’s emotional intelligence and creativity. The goal is to advance awareness and educate people that social and emotional intelligence, especially empathy, are teachable skills and that they are inextricably linked to business profitability. STEM professionals need these skills for continued relevancy, profitability, and social impact.

We gave our studio marketplace a name. It is Ella Creo. At Ella Creo, science is social first. We are a community of STEM Education Advocates who want to bring a sense of calm and ease to the advocacy work of STEM education. We operate at the interface of science and social. We know the hard work of mastering STEM content knowledge, but we are intuitive and social at our core and usually exhibit an affinity towards the affective dimension of life. On the surface, it seems that we aren’t as cognitively engaged as we are. But, upon further inspection, you will notice that we are highly cognizant of our internal and external environment. It is this cognitive awareness that allows us to check in and communicate at another level. We use our cognitive ‘smarts’ to communicate our emotional state as a strategy to advocate, operate as change agents, and create social impact for good.

We are characterized as having high EQ with formal training in a STEM discipline. We have tacit social knowledge and can use it to help others, especially women, successfully navigate STEM education and professional workspaces. We exist to bring a sense of serenity and simplicity to the work of increasing diversity and inclusion across innovation sectors.

We have an asset and appreciative inquiry approach to solving problems. We believe that everyone has something good to offer and that with our innovative multiplier effect, we can increase intellectual and social assets. Our approach is simple. We focus on the good that is already there and do the necessary work to reveal more of it.

As the creators of Social Innovation in STEM, our plan is to attract bright entrepreneurial souls to the STEM education space. We want to dedicate most of our effort towards enhancing the experiences of girls and women in STEM.

Men don’t feel left out. We need you. Your support means that you understand that you have a vested interest in seeing your wives, daughters, nieces, mentees, and best friends prosper in the STEM enterprise.