STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is an acronym for a practical philosophy of learning that encompasses human civilization. Nationals around the globe have developed and became superpowers due to the advancement of STEM. Dwight Eisenhower on STEM education: He foresaw that the power is in training a future generation of people to dissect the human heart, the DNA, the spacecraft, cloud computing, AI, silicon chip technology, and many other things. Intellectual property, copyright, and research innovation give countries power and a competitive advantage over their economic partners in various ways, such as:
1. Royalties: royalties are a significant economic controlling factor, particularly in the technology economy dubbed the "Knowledge Economy."
2. Knowledge economies are the future: The knowledge economy (or knowledge-based economy) is an economic system in which the production of goods and services is based principally on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to advancement in technical and scientific innovation. [1] The key element of value is the greater dependence on human capital and intellectual property as the source of innovative ideas, information, and practices. [2] Organizations are required to capitalize this "knowledge" into their production to stimulate and deepen the business development process. There is less reliance on physical input and natural resources. A knowledge-based economy relies on the crucial role of intangible assets within organizations' settings in facilitating modern economic growth. Singapore and the USA are countries in these leagues; why can't we, as Zambians, do it? It does not need heavy industries; it just needs to champion STEM and come up with initiatives around this innovative approach.
We support STEM in Zambia for a variety of reasons, some of which we have outlined above; it is not because they are games, but because STEM has the potential to be an economy in itself rather than just an enabler or a tool. We Zambians look at technology and science as tools. Maybe that's why we don't invest heavily in STEM because tools are replaceable.
We built an award-winning STEM training kit made in Zambia and designed by Zambian engineers. It won the Genius National STEM Award for the most innovative STEM solution. The kit comes with an online education platform in the form of a mobile app for learners and a web application for teachers; the app is called ZStudy. With this award and the many challenges that pupils face out there and the need to equip a generation of individuals capable of transforming Zambia into a knowledge economy, which we believe is the future, we will keep pushing and doing our best to deliver more solutions like ZStudy and the education training kit.
