By Erin Rockenhaus
News about the release of an Artificial Intelligence technology like ChatGPT and other AI bots raise questions about how humans will interact with information in the future. This development only adds urgency to the key question:
How do we prepare young people to face the world they will enter as adults?
This question joins two perspectives:
- Preparation, especially through education
- The world and its foreseeable challenges
What will this world be like? We can draw some conclusions by following trends we see. One clear trend is that the world’s finite resources (air, water, land, energy, minerals, etc.) and ecosystems will face greater and more urgent threats. Circular STEM seeks to equip students to be leaders who will consider the whole system and who will enact broad, deep and lasting solutions that are circular— sustainable, regenerative, and better for society and the planet. This circular thinking will allow us to change the way society designs and builds products, buildings, cities, and entire systems.
The problem solvers of the future will have to work on interdisciplinary and diverse teams. Circular STEM seeks to prepare young people for a world in which the most important skills will be creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and the ability to bring together knowledge from an array of different fields. This program is built on the idea that the world of the future will demand circular solutions.