Encouraging young adults to explore their creativity now can lead them towards success in their future careers and lives. Why is it important to encourage creative exploration at a young age?
Allows personalized opportunities that students may not have in the classroom
The progression of STEM has greatly increased, however, there are still disparities and limitations to STEM exposure at a young age.
This can be due to numerous reasons, such as a lack of resources within a certain school district or not having the budget to bring teachers that primarily focus on teaching technology or STEM. In a claim made by Forbes, “more than half of U.S. school districts, and more than 90 percent of districts primarily serving Black and Latinx students, reported difficulties recruiting and retaining certified, knowledgeable STEM teachers.” Encouraging students to be creative and to discover what they enjoy provides personalized opportunities that students may not have in the classroom.
Individual creativity can be extremely helpful for academically disinclined students and historically marginalized students, which includes Black and Latinx students. Hands-on or project-based learning are found to be beneficial for lifting students of color as they “connect to personal lived experiences and relevant career options” (Forbes). Experiencing these personalized STEM learning opportunities inevitably lead to more interest in STEM and youth wanting to pursue careers in this field.
For example, introducing a teenager to build their own programmable gaming console can spark a new interest and self-potential that they may not have known about before.
Building skills that are essential for a future career in STEM (or any field!)
There are many skills that can be honed or learned through creativity and encouragement of thinking outside of the box. These skills can become essential and easily applicable to the field of STEM or any field for that matter.
“According to an Adobe study, 85% of college-educated professionals say creative thinking is critical for problem solving in their careers. And an analysis of LinkedIn data found that creativity is the second most in-demand job skill (after cloud computing), topping the list of soft skills companies need most.” (ISTE, 2021).
Unleash your creative mind with 8BITCADE, a STEM-focused gaming console
8BitCADE has several products that can help expose teenagers/young adults to STEM in meaningful and educational ways. With the 8BitCADE Original and the 8BitCADEXL, users can build and program their own handheld gaming console. The creativity doesn’t stop there - users can also code and play over 200+ retro themed games including cult classic favorites such as Space Invaders or Tetris.