“Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”
-Carl Sagan
I’m a former Mechanical Engineer and Air Force Officer who’s decided that teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to teenagers and young adults is what I “do”. I’m a strong advocate of the importance of scientific and mathematical literacy in modern society, and a disciple of Carl Sagan, Bill Nye and Dean Kamen. For me, helping students succeed in STEM subjects isn’t just a career, it’s a cause to fight for. That’s why I call myself a STEM Education Warrior.
I developed this educational philosophy and life mission during 4+ years of motivating young Chinese adults to learn (also known as “teaching”) Mechanical Engineering Technology in Shanghai, and have further consolidated it (and rediscovered the beauty of physics and mathematics at a more fundamental level) during the past 10+ years of teaching pre-university/post-16 A-level and IB programs. I am interested in new and emerging renewable energy, transport and robotics/automation technologies, and plan to one day undertake further study in one or a combination of these fields. I recently completed a Master of STEM Education with American College of Education.
The “Renaissance Man” part of my title refers to a variety of other skills and experiences that are hard to capture in one line. I studied Spanish in Buenos Aires and Mandarin Chinese in Nanjing (China), and am proficient in both. I spent 2 years in Nanjing teaching corporate English to engineers and scientific writing to doctors, as well as performing at corporate functions and events with an international group of musicians. I used to work as a Chivas Brand Ambassador, running bilingual whisky tasting sessions, and have occasionally taken on freelance academic editing work. I did the 200-hour Yoga Alliance teacher training in 2011. I still do the occasional paid gig as a musician.
Although I am now primarily focused on developing my career as a STEM educator (preferably in the IB ecosystem), I am open to any other consulting gigs/business proposals that might combine synergistically with that goal, and the above-mentioned skills, knowledge, experience and interests.
So what is STEMlightenment.com all about?
- Meaningful, cutting-edge STEM teaching and learning
- Thinking like a STEM Warrior – rationally, scientifically, Stoically and with a focus on solving problems
- Enlightenment through continual improvement, lifelong learning and ever-expanding horizons (this includes travel, music, language learning, growth mindset/abundance mentality, thinking entrepreneurially, etc.)
- Innovation, optimisation and synthesis – “connecting the dots”