Animated, interactive visualisation of technologies, infrastructure and activities the STEMulator aims to expose children to many of the activities and infrastructure that constitute the human world today, both natural and built environments, and to reveal aspects not generally seen as part of daily life, says National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) STEMulator project manager Richard Gundersen.

Named for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), children can explore technologies and technical disciplines to identify potential careers. It is a nonprofit initiative of South Africa's pro fessional science, engineering and technology organisations.

The tool is a virtual landscape where users can explore by click ing items that interest them, including cars, human beings, agriculture, energy generation, hospitals, construction, water infra structure, aerospace and indus trial manufacturing.

Each of these items is further divided into parts that youths can focus on, such as the use of ultrasound in the pre-natal care section of the hospital, or the design and use of wind turbines in the energy part of the virtual landscape.

“By generating excitement among school children about opportunities and potential careers that await them, they can proactively choose subjects, specifically STEM subjects, that will enable them to pursue careers that excite them,” he explains.

Further, as youths explore portions of the landscape, the STEMulator provides hyperlinks to tertiary education institutions in South Africa that offer courses relevant to the topic they are viewing, thereby helping to identify institutions where they may want to study to pursue a particular career.

“For example, the car has animations that demonstrate how an engine works and diagrams of engine geometry, its swept volume and compression ratio, as well as details of braking systems, exhaust systems and air conditioning systems.”

The car exhaust system introduces corrosion, with a time-lapse video of rust forming on a plate, to expose viewers to the challenges of preventing rust in exhaust systems, something they might not have thought about, Gundersen illustrates.

He encourages industrial companies and organisations to contact the NSTF to contribute content and comment to the STEMulator to provide a richer experience for school children. The tool can be accessed at www.stemulator.org. The school is ‘under construction’ and will ensure that all STEM items in the curriculum, such as global warming and green energy, are represented in the STEMulator, together with video clips of relevant experiments. All the content is written or reviewed by professionals in the relevant industry, he adds.

The NSTF team also provides the STEMulator on USB drives, which are distributed to schools with limited connectivity to enable the teachers to expose their students to the tool and enable them to explore the impact and importance of STEM careers.

For this reason, the STEMulator team focuses on ensuring the tool is light-weight in terms of data use, with most pages being no larger than 200 KB, with some animations being only 31 KB in size.

The tool will soon contain videos and animations of science experiments in the South African curriculum, which will help teachers in schools with limited materials or equipment and enable them to focus on explaining the concepts, he adds.

“Last year, we distributed 150 STEMulator USB drives to rural and township schools across the country and have more than 500 planned for this year. We hope the STEMulator can support the promotion of, STEM careers.”

South Africa, and the world, needs more qualified STEM professionals to support their industries and build their economies. Many school children in South Africa choose subjects to increase their chances of getting higher matric scores, but these subject choices are often made without knowing what careers they are excluding themselves from, he says.

“Mathematics literacy, for example, is insufficient for entry into engineering, science and technology courses and careers. “Children who drop mathematics and science may narrow their opportunities in life,” highlights Gundersen.

We hope the STEMulator will ensure a youthful pipeline of youngsters excited about the STEM world and careers.”