Resnick Aspen Action Forum

Middle East Leadership Initiative Fellow Elie Wurtman is looking to disrupt the way students in Jerusalem learn. He established his afterschool program, PICO Kids, to do just that. He shares what he has learned below. 

AGLN: What is your Action Pledge?
Elie Wurtman: My Action Pledge was to create a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education program for 1,000 children in Jerusalem, fundamentally changing the way children learn about science, technology, and innovation.
 
Why is STEM education important?
EW: Jerusalem is a very complex city. We have all sorts of difficulties here. STEM education is a neutral topic that most people can rally around. And Jerusalem is sorely needing innovation in the area of education. I decided to focus on STEM as a means to fundamentally change the trajectory of children growing up in Jerusalem, giving them the tools and hopefully a fun and enjoyable way to learn about science and technology that inspires them to do great things as they get older.
 
In my opinion, a good STEM education provides the tools that are needed for the modern economy. STEM allows children to learn in the garage or in a playroom where they can get their hands dirty, they can roll up their sleeves, they can press buttons, they can program things, they can touch scientific experiments, and connect to learning. Very much the same way we do at Aspen, talking to each other, experiencing things and not just listening to a lecture. I find that STEM education is something, which draws children into education, which makes education fun. It opens their eyes to the future, it opens their eyes to things they’re fundamentally interested in, in a world that’s very much driven by technology.
 
AGLN: What are the biggest challenges you see in exposing youth to STEM?
EW: The biggest challenge is leadership - leadership amongst educators who are perhaps scared to move outside traditional curriculum for learning. It’s difficult to find great teachers and inspire them to teach in a new way that makes learning fun. The traditional curriculum is very much based on frontal learning, on textbook learning. I don’t think we’ve moved past textbooks, but the world is at a dramatic learning point where all the information you could possibly ever learn is in your pocket, in your cellphone. And my view is that a hands on educational experience is something children want and children seek. Knowledge is a fact; we have access to knowledge. Teaching children how to create things through their hands, how to learn through experience is something we need to bring back to the classroom.