As more public and private organizations recognize that STEM education play a key role in promoting excellence and growth of tomorrow’s innovators, Arya Peruma (Founder, Coding for Young Minds Community Organization, a not for profit based in Ontario, Canada) sets to host live complimentary training webinars to help middle and high school students in the community to further develop their skills in terms of knowledge regarding subjects related to STEM. The upcoming tutoring webinar schedule is posted on their website https://codingforyoungminds.weebly.com/events.html.

Arya Peruma is passionate about making STEM education more inclusive for the underrepresented. Arya’s mission is to increase STEM accessibility for middle & high school students with limited opportunity to access STEM education. She has stepped forward through her non-profit organization, to help bring STEM experiences to students in the community in a virtual way during the COVID-19 closures.

The global economy is changing. Current jobs are disappearing due to automation and new jobs are emerging every day as a result of technological advances. The continual advances in technology are changing the way students learn, connect and interact every day. Skills developed by students through STEM provide them with the foundation to succeed at school and beyond.

“It’s not too often that you have the opportunity to change the world, but as a STEM educator, you can do just that. By encouraging students to develop and maintain interest in STEM subjects, you’re preparing the next generation of researchers, engineers, scientists and programmers to meet the growing demands for qualified STEM professionals-and preparing future professionals in all fields to leverage STEM approaches and techniques. As more aspects of daily life are tied to technology, the need to improve and expand STEM education across the curriculum will only get more pressing” said Arya Peruma.

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Rather than teach the four disciplines as separate and discrete subjects, STEM integrates them into a cohesive learning paradigm based on real-world applications.

What separates STEM from the traditional science and math education is the blended learning environment and showing students how the scientific method can be applied to everyday life. It teaches students computational thinking and focuses on the real world applications of problem solving. As mentioned before, STEM education begins while students are very young

Through STEM, students develop key skills including:

• problem solving
• creativity
• critical analysis
• teamwork
• independent thinking
• initiative
• communication
• Digital literacy

About Arya Peruma

Arya Peruma is the lead instructor and is responsible for developing and delivering informative tutoring webinars. She is currently a high school student attending Lorne Park Secondary School and was the recipient of the McMaster University Learning Enrichment Advancement Program Engineering Award Scholarship in 2019. From her middle school years, Arya has given numerous hours towards volunteering and working for tutoring organizations, and there, sparked an interest towards educating and teaching others. Her passions include subjects regarding STEM, such as coding, mathematics, science, and engineering. She has also completed certification courses for Python, HTML, JavaScript, and completed a coding project in virtual reality game development. For more information please visit https://codingforyoungminds.weebly.com/