Season 2 Episode 1 - Dr. Heather Beem | In service of others
Welcome back. It is season two. Segev, we are going global. We are live. No.
Bryan Dewsbury:Well, we didn't say we didn't say global yet. Although, although, this first episode is somebody who's doing some really, really cool work in Ghana. Before we get into that, I'm happy to have joined me in the studio. You all might remember episode three, episode four, somewhere around the Season one, episode three. Season one, we talked to a wonderful scholar named Megdalawed Derivi.
Bryan Dewsbury:Megdalawed was walking by the lab, I said, come in the studio and let's do something and here she is. You want to say hi?
Megdalawed Derivi:Hi Brian. Hi everyone. Thanks for having me again.
Bryan Dewsbury:I'm not going to I'm not going to interview you this time and my second guest I'll allow you to introduce herself.
Alice Apostolakos:Hi, everyone. My name is Alice Apostolakos. I was in, which what episode was it?
Bryan Dewsbury:Well, no. That episode is to come. So that's
Alice Apostolakos:Oh, that episode
Bryan Dewsbury:is surprise.
Dr. Heather Beem:Okay. Surprise episode.
Bryan Dewsbury:We're gonna use that to introduce your badass podcast that's coming up soon. Just saying. Just saying. They don't know about that yet. Right?
Bryan Dewsbury:So They don't know about that. Them let them wonder. Yeah. Let them wonder. Okay.
Alice Apostolakos:Well, you'll see more of me later. But, yeah, my name is Alice Pasalakis. I'm an undergraduate student here at FIU. I'm currently running my own podcast, which, you know, we will learn more about. But, yeah, super happy to be here.
Bryan Dewsbury:You know, one thing we like about Knowledge Unbound is that we're all about friends. Right? And, you know, it's not just about talking to people, hearing their story, having them help us understand the world better, but ways in which we can just have these exciting collaborations. So Alice is gonna launch a podcast later this summer. You'll hear more about it on this podcast and on our social media channels.
Bryan Dewsbury:Meg Delawis is a permanent friend of the program for better or for worse. Sir. And today, on season one, I'm sorry, episode one of season two, very excited. We talked to Doctor Heather Beam who runs a nonprofit called the Practical Education Network. There's just a lot to learn about this, and I don't want to get into it too deeply, but I just encourage you as you listen to not just be wowed, I guess, by the particulars of what the nonprofit does, but broader and bigger messages that she has in there for how we can be thinking about education.
Bryan Dewsbury:Sigeva, you sure you're happy being on camera? I'll do it. It is a very welcome change.
Bryan Dewsbury:I'll tell you that. I wanted it. Well, welcome, everyone. Hope you enjoy the episode. See you at the end.
Bryan Dewsbury:So first I want to point out that we actually recording this episode at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. My friend, Doctor. Stephanie Guzler gave us, was kind enough to get us a reservation here. Heather, one of the things I wanna do, I always never want to do on this podcast is tell somebody's story for them. And you've had such an interesting journey from grad school to the kinds of projects that you do now.
Bryan Dewsbury:For this part of the episode at least, let's start from that point. Let's start from you at MIT. So tell us a little bit about what you were doing at MIT and then what led, what took you from MIT to the Practical Education Network?
Dr. Heather Beem:I was studying mechanical engineering at MIT in the PhD program. And I was getting to work on really cool cutting edge research and fluid mechanics and studying bio inspired approaches to designing technologies, all very cool. But I also in parallel to doing all that mechanical engineering research, I found myself really captivated by the larger atmosphere that I was in at MIT. Specifically what people call the maker movement was very alive in the space that I was occupying there.
Bryan Dewsbury:Was it, had it started at that time? Had that movement started?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yes, I would say it had started, yes.
Bryan Dewsbury:So what is in Maker Movement?
Dr. Heather Beem:The Maker Movement is a movement in which there's a desire to see people of all walks of life engage in creating and building, bringing things to life, whether they're very functional or just very artistic or just fun. It's all kind of about getting people to be a part of that very rich process of creation and building. And so that was very much alive and active at MIT, you know, obviously with the focus on more engineering and functional things, but I just realized that I was surrounded by people who were always making stuff. You know, you walk down the hallways and you see anything and everything you can think of robots moving up and down or all kinds of gadgets. And that was really fun.
Dr. Heather Beem:So I got, you know, involved in that. I started, you know, tinkering around and building stuff as well. But I realized that in addition to that, in addition to, of course, the physical artifacts that are being created, it seemed to have an effect on myself and my peers that we gain this confidence that we could solve problems. It seemed to me that as we engage in this act of making and creating things, it gave us this perception, this mindset that we can go out into the world and solve problems that are out there. It sort of felt like nothing is impossible.
Dr. Heather Beem:You know, there are big challenges in the world, but we can solve them.
Bryan Dewsbury:Sorry to interrupt, but is it, was it sort of the creator aspect of it? The fact that you created this thing, I don't want to say it gave you right? But at the same time, to create the thing, you had to be almost by definition a problem solver or a figure outer, right? Do you think that's what the natural step from that mindset was to then look beyond the thing you created and say, okay, well, what else can I create? What else can I solve?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think that process of bringing something to life led to the perception that more things can be created, more things can be solved. Right.
Bryan Dewsbury:You know, I guess one of the things I hear when you talk about this and I'm asking these questions now because I wanna know to what extent these values slash virtues transfer into your next set of projects. There's a deep element of inclusiveness in it. I see in that, instead of an education situation where you're just simply receiving information, even if it's good information, if you are in the process of creation, there is almost a very natural way you see yourself as part of what was created and part of the knowledge that was generated, which is a different relationship with knowledge than if I was just a receiver. Can you talk a little bit about that impact?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, absolutely. I think that's related to the constructivist approach in education, which apparently also came from some folks at MIT a number of years ago. Yeah, definitely. I think there's very much an element of engagement that comes from that. As you are involved in creating something, feel much more engaged, you feel more ownership over it, you feel much more connected to whatever you're interacting with compared to just receiving or downloading information from someone else.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay, so what was the next steps after that?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, so as I was kind of reflecting on that experience I was having, being in that environment where hands on learning was very much celebrated, I started to just become curious. What would it take to help students in other parts of the world get to experience that as well? If that was an important or helpful part of the education I was receiving, how could we enable students outside of the confines of MIT, which is a very small institution get to experience that as well. And specifically, what would it take to make that available for students in a place where it seems particularly challenging to do a very hands on experiential education in a place where there seems to be less material availability in a school, can students still have this as an outcome? Can students still emerge from their schooling experience having this confidence to solve problems and become even change makers in their own community.
Dr. Heather Beem:So all these ideas were kind of swelling up for me as a curiosity is what it started off as.
Bryan Dewsbury:Yeah. You know, I'm not satisfied here. And I'll tell you what, it's not that I'm not satisfied, it's that there were many other students at MIT who had the experience of creation and being in a maker space. Heather Beam was the student who turned that experience into, I wonder what is possible for others. So I guess the thing that I'm curious about, why you take that step mentally, right?
Bryan Dewsbury:I mean, you could have said, oh, was cool and I can go on and be a great engineer and this has taught me a lot that I can now take to that fortune 500 company, etcetera. You asked that question. So I'm curious as to, and I don't know, maybe you don't have an answer for this, right? But I'm curious as to if you, as you reflect on that moment or those moments, what can you think about that made you think of that experience in that particular way, it's transferability?
Dr. Heather Beem:I think there are a lot of different threads that led to that. One is the context in which I grew up. My dad was in the Peace Corps right after he finished college. And so growing up, we heard from him all the time about his experience in Nepal, how impactful it was on him. So definitely in the back of my mind, there's always been an interest or a desire to see what I could also experience if I had a similar cross cultural experience like that.
Dr. Heather Beem:And then my mom is from Taiwan. So when we grew up, we would always, every few years go to Taiwan. We even went to school there. And so there was already kind of a precedent for thinking to some extent about how education differs in different contexts based on my own experience in The US and then in Taiwan. So that's one thread.
Dr. Heather Beem:And then another was my faith, my Christian faith, I think has, yeah, built a deeper sense in me that there is a need, there's a sense of purpose that requires one to think beyond oneself and to sort of give and serve others. So, that's another thread. Another thread I'll also share is that in the PhD program, you have to take the qualifying exams. I Oh, I know. Yeah, yeah, that thing.
Dr. Heather Beem:So I took the qualifying exams and I failed. The first time I failed and I felt so, distraught and all of this stuff. I was just wondering you know, what am I doing? Am I on the right path? Because up until that point, you know, academically, I'd been able to more or less achieve the things I had set out in front of myself.
Dr. Heather Beem:And at that moment, I've I sort of took it as a wake up call. For me, there's a faith element embedded in that as well. There was a sense that God was saying, okay, Heather, take this as a wake up call. Don't just live your life continuing on to try and just build up your academic experience. But think about you are in this, you have the amazing opportunity.
Dr. Heather Beem:You're in a place where there's so many programs you could get involved in. There's so many things you could use as launching points to get engaged in doing something much bigger than yourself. And so I sort of took that moment in my graduate school experience as a wake up call to also see what I could do to connect to a broader, ideally international perspective.
Bryan Dewsbury:So before I ask you for details, tell us, give us an overall description of the Practical Education Network.
Dr. Heather Beem:Practical Education Network or PENN for short is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enable every African child to learn by doing. We see a future where when students go to school across the African Continent, they're doing activities, they're doing experiments, they're doing projects. And in the process, they're cultivating critical thinking, problem solving, technical skills that will enable them to become the change makers and innovators to drive development of their communities forward.
Bryan Dewsbury:So give us some examples of some of the projects that Penn does.
Dr. Heather Beem:Well, the key project that we do at Penn is teacher training. We organize a training program for science and math teachers across the K-twelve spectrum. And we take them through how they can use everyday materials to teach in a much more hands on and practical way. The reality is that most a typical average school in a place like Ghana where I live, you know, constantly struggles for having enough things for the kids, enough desks, enough textbooks, you name it. And so the idea of them getting a lab, especially in the public schools is something that we'll have to wait a while for.
Dr. Heather Beem:And so we think that that shouldn't preclude students from getting to have a very rich experiential education. So we leverage what's available. We leverage what's around teachers and schools and students. Everyday things like plastic bottles, balloons, flowers, kebab skewers, even local foods like banqu and kemke. We use all those things and we guide teachers to how they can repurpose those into very hands on activities that they can teach in school.
Bryan Dewsbury:So a lot of my listeners are people who themselves teach classrooms, also students as well. And know you probably have several examples, but I would love to just hear one example of how you take simple materials and turn it into a high quality scientific experience.
Dr. Heather Beem:All right, I'll give you two examples. One is But
Bryan Dewsbury:I said one.
Dr. Heather Beem:Kidding, I'm kidding.
Bryan Dewsbury:All right, all right.
Dr. Heather Beem:One of my favorites is what we call the breathing model.
Bryan Dewsbury:So,
Dr. Heather Beem:typically when teachers are trying to teach about the different systems we have in the human body, they'll draw a diagram on the board and then they'll label everything and then tell the students draw it and then memorize and then repeat after me all these vocabulary just memorize it. So instead of drawing the whole respiratory system, we tell teachers, why don't you take a water bottle, plastic water bottle, empty one, cut off the bottom where that is now open, tie a plastic bag. And then in the mouth of the bottle, hang a balloon. Then you observe the balloon while you pull the plastic bag at the bottom. When you pull the plastic bag at the bottom, the balloon inflates.
Dr. Heather Beem:And then when you push the plastic bag in, the balloon deflates. So the balloon is representing your lung and the plastic bag is representing your diaphragm. So you're gonna see as the diaphragm expands and contracts as you pull it in and out, the balloon, which is your lung inflates and deflates. So this is a very visual and tactile way for students to get to see how the diaphragm plays a role in enabling us to breathe. Instead of just drawing it on the board, which is very dry and abstract, you get something that every student can touch and manipulate and get to have a much more dynamic experience engaging with that concept in.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay. What's the second one?
Dr. Heather Beem:The second one is just a fun one to show how the local materials can actually be leveraged really cleverly. So in Ghana, there's a drink called sobolo. It's made from the hibiscus flower with ginger and a number of other spices. That flower naturally can change colors as it interacts with an acid or a base. So all teachers do instead of needing to buy litmus paper, which is not that available, they can make their own litmus paper by, crushing the hibiscus flower and, boiling it and then dipping some paper in it.
Dr. Heather Beem:So you have your own litmus paper that changes colors using what's available in the environment.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay. So I'm assuming that you didn't just leave Cambridge, Massachusetts and show up in Accra. Hey, I'm here to do some science experiments. And by the way, start a nonprofit. So tell us, you know, why Ghana?
Bryan Dewsbury:How did you, you know, get there and what was that transition like?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, I didn't just show up. It was the course of multiple years kind of going back and forth before deciding to move and launch the nonprofit. Through MIT, there's a program called D Lab that takes students through courses on how they can engage with communities, usually rural communities to work on engineering projects. They had been working with the school in Ghana a number of times. And so through those connections at D Lab, it was Ghana just became kind of the easiest place for me and some other students to connect and say, wanted to come and try some projects out with the students.
Dr. Heather Beem:So, when I was still in graduate school, I found myself at this school in Ghana, thanks to the D Lab connections. I just had a few days there. My first trip to Ghana, I show up in this classroom. It's summer, it's really hot. The students have all gone, you know, they're not in class, so they're all out on the street selling, you know, to get their daily bread basically.
Dr. Heather Beem:But then eventually they all kind of the teacher rallied them in to see, you know, hey, let's come do some projects because this person from MIT showed up. Let's see what the person has for us. And yeah, they eventually came in and, you know, they actually looked a little disappointed when they saw that I didn't show up with equipment, you know, I'm supposed to be I coming with said a this bunch of assumption, yeah. Yeah, a bunch of stuff for them to use. But I said, let's try and use what we have available.
Dr. Heather Beem:Let's see what we can figure out. And, know, they were kind of disappointed when they heard that. But eventually there was one young boy who came forward with this plastic bucket and everybody was kind of looking at him like, okay, what are we gonna do with this? We're coming here to do engineering projects. But slowly over time, we figured out that we could actually take that bucket and make a wind turbine.
Dr. Heather Beem:So we took this plastic bucket, we cut it in half, and then each semicircular half kind of fits together and in such a way that it makes an s shape. And then as the wind blows, it turns the whole, the whole two pieces. So we put that on a wooden pole. We got some wires and magnets from old computers. We put that at the base.
Dr. Heather Beem:And then as the bucket spun the blades, we're able to generate a little bit of electricity the Yeah. Setup, the whole Which was really useful because when I was there, the school didn't really have constant electricity. So that was my first experience in Ghana. And I was still a student, so I had to go back to MIT after those few days on the ground. But I just felt so captivated by that experience because I saw that with a little bit of exposure, these students were able to build something that was really meaningful for them.
Dr. Heather Beem:They could at least charge their phone, you know, from something that they had built themselves. So that was my first experience in Ghana. But then over the course of the next two or three years, I kept having conversations with people in Ghana on the phone. When I got the chance, I would go for short trips back and forth. Before finally in 2016, I decided to move to Ghana and set up, you know, an organization to really make do what we can to make hands on education more available.
Bryan Dewsbury:What went into that decision?
Dr. Heather Beem:A lot of things. Yeah. If it was a straightforward decision, I would have made it
Bryan Dewsbury:more Yeah.
Dr. Heather Beem:So those phone call conversations after my first trip led to the idea that if we really wanted to make that thing that happened in that classroom where they built a wind turbine, if we wanna make that available at a larger scale, we should engage teachers. Was what the conversations led to. And so my follow on trips were all around teacher training. Training teachers on how they could be the ones to now guide students to gather these items locally and make projects. And I was going back and forth, you know, I would go to Ghana.
Dr. Heather Beem:I raise money for my plane ticket, go to Ghana, run a training, and then I'd go back to Boston. And one thing that really stood out was when I was back in Boston, I would get messages from some of the teachers that had received training that they had gone on to train other people, which was impressive because at that time, nobody was getting paid. It was purely voluntary thing.
Bryan Dewsbury:And when you train those teachers, was, did you expect slash ask them between other teachers or did they just voluntarily, they were so excited about it that they, Hey, you should learn this too.
Dr. Heather Beem:Well, we asked them. Yeah, we did say, yeah, you know, we want you guys to go out and spread it, but we didn't give them any resources to do that. So it was more just like, we would really love it if you guys do this. So, I mean, most of them didn't, but a few did. And it was like, okay, wow, that's really cool.
Dr. Heather Beem:They, you know, whatever it took for themselves to sacrifice to go out there, organize a program, provide lunch for people kind of thing. They were willing to do it because they felt that whatever was there to be shared was worth it. And so that was one thing that really stood out to me. You know, at that point, I'd sort of been immersed around the development space for a few years and I got to see that, you know, it's not easy making things change, making things work. It's not easy.
Dr. Heather Beem:So if there's something like people actually on their own going out and spreading this thing, then there's actually something of value And so it's sort of, you know, over time I came to a point where I realized, okay, the least I can do is at least try, go on the ground and at least try for a period of time to see what could happen if, you know, my full attention is So on
Bryan Dewsbury:it was a commitment to give it a good faith effort. Yeah. And just see how it goes basically. Okay. What was the response?
Bryan Dewsbury:I mean, obviously they liked it because they went and they trained others, but like in the moment, you know, while you're doing that training, what was the feedback from the teachers? And I don't want to careful here because I don't want to poo poo what was happening before you showed up, right? But in terms of their teaching pre and post Penn training, right? What was the impact of the Penn training on their teaching in the classroom?
Dr. Heather Beem:Well, first I'll say that from the first training we did, even till now, pretty consistently get the kind of feedback from teachers that they really, really appreciate the training. They'll often use the word eye opener because it's like, they always wanted to do something much more hands on and experiential, but they felt it wasn't possible in their classroom given the material constraints. And so we always hear things like this was an eye opener. I'm so grateful. This is really exciting for me.
Dr. Heather Beem:I think there's so much I can do now. So we have lots of stories of when we go and visit these teachers, they are engaging their students in activities where previously they were just relying on the blackboard. We show up to schools where teachers have their own science box. They've collected materials. They've gotten their students involved.
Dr. Heather Beem:So now they have like a repertoire of things that they're ready to deliver at any point in time. We have stories of teachers who would say things like, they're teaching in an area that's kind of a slum area. And one day the government decided they're gonna knock down a bunch of the structures there that a lot of the kids were living in. And so now the kids have dispersed, they're really far away and they don't come to her school anymore. But once she started doing activities, you know, the few kids that were there told their friends and like, oh, there's something cool.
Dr. Heather Beem:There's something exciting happening at school. So now their students are actually attending school again, whereas before they weren't motivated to.
Bryan Dewsbury:Yeah. Any collaborations with the Ministry of Education? I'm not sure what it's called, but I'm assuming there's a state level organization. Has there been any partnership conversations with them?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yes, yes. We always work with Ministry of Education or in Ghana, the Ghana Education Service. Anytime we're interacting with the public schools, work with their district science coordinator, and then usually up the chain all the way up to the national level as well.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay, okay. How has, well, I'm assuming your reception has been good, but also, I know Ghana is a big country, spatially speaking. And how far has your reach been? Have you been able to go up to the Volta Region, Kumasi, even Burkina Faso?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah. Northeast. Yeah, we have done at least some of our training in about 10 of the 16 regions of Ghana. So we've covered a majority of the regions. We're based in Accra, which is on the very South.
Dr. Heather Beem:So lot of activity has been in the Greater Accra region, but yes, we've worked in the Volta Region, Central Region, Ashanti Region, even the Northern Region a little bit as well.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay. I wanna shift gears just a little bit. So I think you said you made a decision to stay in 2016. I think it was January 2017. I had the privilege of taking some students to Ghana on a study abroad trip.
Bryan Dewsbury:We did two weeks.
Dr. Heather Beem:And I
Bryan Dewsbury:spent a week in Cape Coast, we spent a week in Kumasi. And while we were at Cape Coast, being able to go to one of these slave castles was and still is perhaps one of the most moving experiences of my entire life, right? And I recognize the privilege being able to have had that experience in person. And maybe it's because we are so many centuries removed, obviously there's reasons to remember why the transatlantic slave existed. But I guess there are several questions here.
Bryan Dewsbury:I'm not quite sure which one to ask first. I mean, first, I'm interested in your own engagement with Ghana and its history and its relationship with the West. And I'm also interested in physically identifying very different to the people that you serve and you work with and how that relationship has evolved over time. So I guess I'll let you start with either one, but you know, moving from, you know, I think you say you're born and raised in Oklahoma, you spent some time in Taiwan, you're in Cambridge, right? But, you know, Ghana is a very different context to all of that, right?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yes.
Bryan Dewsbury:I don't know if you've learned three yet, you know, all of that, you know, so maybe tell me, I'm asking in general about your integration into Ghanaian culture and life.
Dr. Heather Beem:Yes, before I moved there, I had, let's say no connection, no connection to Ghana before I got involved in the MIT D Lab program. So yeah, it's been, everything has been different, in life and everything there. One thing that I'm really grateful for is I was welcomed by a host family for about a year when I first moved there. They were just so generous to welcome me with open arms, even though I didn't know them, just the mom is a principal in one of the school districts that I was working more in. And so, yeah, thanks to them, I got to understand culture, family dynamics, food, language.
Dr. Heather Beem:I speak some tree. Yeah. So yeah, I have a lot to be grateful to that host family for. And so, in Ghana, when I tell people there, I've been there for eight years, they're like, oh, okay. So then you're Ghanaian then pretty much that's a common thing people say to me.
Dr. Heather Beem:I wish my chew was better. I'd feel more comfortable saying yes in response, but it's okay. At least the basics. Yeah. I certainly feel that tension or that dynamic of being a foreigner.
Dr. Heather Beem:I feel that not from Ghanaians, I'm just aware of myself, my own presence, if I can say it that way. I I am constantly aware of that. And I know that, ideally, everything we do should be locally led as much as possible. And so I hope we'll get to that point. Hopefully my role is mainly to kind of spark some ideas, spark some you know, attention, bring some attention to something that could be done a different way, which I think that is one thing that a foreigner can do is kind of, you know, captivate attention to a topic at least for a period of time.
Dr. Heather Beem:So hopefully my presence is enabling that, but certainly I hope that whatever we do is embedded in what is really of interest locally. And so, but it's definitely a constant thing I'm aware of, and then trying to make sure I'm thinking carefully on what role I play.
Bryan Dewsbury:Yeah. Have you been able to go to the slave castle?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yes, I have. I went the first time I was in Ghana and it was very moving. In fact, I haven't gone back because it was, yeah, it was very emotional experience. So, yeah.
Bryan Dewsbury:How has your time there impacted your feeling when you come back to The US? And I don't mean that in any particular direction, right? I'm just thinking of that context and your role there and coming back to here and I know you're still somewhat tied to how we think about education in The US and in higher education and the kinds of questions that people like myself and others are trying to tackle. What about your experience has taught you about education, its value, how it's implemented that perhaps we can learn from as we tackle questions back here? Well,
Dr. Heather Beem:what I would love to see in the future, and I think we're getting there, is what I would love to see is that STEM teachers in Africa are actually seen as exemplars of hands on teaching. Because they need to be resourceful to teach effectively, I would like to see that becomes a trend that instead of knowledge or ideas seemingly having to be imported from somewhere into Africa, we can actually export some of these things. And I think that's possible, especially with Africa's growing population. I hope that people will start to see that what's happening with STEM teaching in Africa is actually something that could be inspiration or something to learn from in other contexts. And I think it fits in The US, I know there's a lot of interest in much more culturally relevant pedagogy.
Dr. Heather Beem:And so I think there's I hope that there's a link there that what's happening in Africa can be looked to for some of that inspiration.
Bryan Dewsbury:Have you been able to tell your story back here besides this podcast?
Dr. Heather Beem:That's an interesting question. Not to some extent. Yeah, to some extent, but it would be good to do more of that.
Bryan Dewsbury:Well, the reason why I ask is because, you know, I unfortunately know of so many kind of parachute type, you know, volunteerism, right? Where it, with all due respect to those who do it, it ends up coming across more as a, I'm kind of here to save you versus, you know, find ways to tap into an existing beautiful intellectual resource that you already have, right? Which is a much more like we minded thing. I guess I'm enamored by your model and maybe this is just a researcher writing me, right? Would like to see this more known.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay. So I know you've expanded into some other countries. Tell us about that.
Dr. Heather Beem:Yes, we have piloted in Rwanda and Liberia. Okay. And both went really well, very similar response from teachers. Like we didn't know there was so much we could do with what's available around us. We need more of this training.
Dr. Heather Beem:This training should be spread across the country, you know, same kind of feedback we've been hearing in Ghana. And yeah, I'm excited to say that in Liberia, looks like fingers crossed. We will be able to start expanding to all of the 15 counties in Liberia, hopefully starting from next year. So yeah, we've had a great fantastic time working with the Ministry of Education in Liberia and looking forward to seeing this take root over there.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay. Okay. Very nice. So I wish you the best with that. Let's go back to MIT for a second.
Bryan Dewsbury:So you failed your quarrels, but you had started to go to Ghana before you finished your degree. So if my math is correct, then there was a period of time between when you eventually passed your quarrels and the end of your degree where you were sort of back and forth to Ghana, right? So you essentially finishing up your MIT degree while kind of almost having this second existence with God. Yes. And I guess I'm wondering because you talked about how faith played a role in that, you know, when that moment happened and asking yourself, I mean, what I took from it, you, it puts you in a space where you had to ask yourself what your why was, right?
Bryan Dewsbury:What your sort of purpose of engaging in journey was. And so beyond that question, beyond asking yourself that question, how did the partnership with Ghana and the things you were doing there, how was that last segment of your doctoral process different than, say, when you started?
Dr. Heather Beem:How was my experience?
Bryan Dewsbury:At MIT, right? So because now, you know, you're still at school, you're still in Cambridge, where you're sort of back and forth. And I guess what I'm gathering from you is that you are now at MIT with a different sense of purpose than you were perhaps when you What was that change like?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, I definitely felt Yeah, I think I could say I felt more purpose driven. Yeah, it felt like there was something very meaningful to put my energy into.
Bryan Dewsbury:Were there Do you have colleagues who were doing that back and forth as well?
Dr. Heather Beem:There were a couple other students that I was working with in those initial days, other MIT students. They weren't in the same lab or the same program as me. So not directly around me, which is I think why I found myself so drawn to the D lab program. So that was totally outside of my research lab, but it was filled with people who were engaging with communities internationally. So I really resonated with what was happening there.
Dr. Heather Beem:And I started spending more time there, getting involved with more student teams there.
Bryan Dewsbury:Was there any pushback on you for making that choice?
Dr. Heather Beem:No, interestingly, I mean, thankfully I had a PhD advisor who was very open, very So, hands you know, as long as you are making progress, he was fine with it.
Bryan Dewsbury:Give me my stuff, you do what you do. Yeah. Well, no, I mean, what I asked because in STEM and not to stereotype all of STEM, right? But there's sometimes a very much like your job here is to help us publish, to do X, Y, and Z, these are the very requirements of the programme. And, you know, a lot of times programmes don't necessarily make space when you have an expanded sense of why.
Bryan Dewsbury:So other people like yourself who have met around the country when they've had that moment or trying to think outside the box or operate outside the box, right? They're met with heavy resistance, not necessarily because people don't like what they're doing, but they're uncomfortable, right? With a different way of looking at the role of academia. But I'm glad I guess you didn't really have that experience.
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, I would say, yeah, thankfully during the school period, yeah, probably because my supervisor was quite hands off, it was okay. But I would say that pushback really came when I decided to move, you know, because that was the point at which everybody was like, are you sure, you know, what are you really gonna be doing there? Are you wasting your time? You just finished this degree, which you have some momentum behind the work you were doing and all that. So that was really where the pushback came more.
Dr. Heather Beem:I mean, I think during school, the PhD is a long program, you know, it's kind of, I guess people are kind of okay with you trying things here and there. But then when it became to the point of being like, okay, but no, really, really, this is what I'm actually gonna pursue and put all my energy into. That's where I think there was more pushback.
Bryan Dewsbury:What was your response?
Dr. Heather Beem:I think my stubbornness has carried me a long way in this journey. I just felt so convicted at that point that this was the right thing for me to do, the right place for me to go, that I just sort of ignored a lot of the pushback that came.
Bryan Dewsbury:Yeah. Yeah. Well, let I'm not gonna challenge you, but I'm gonna ask because well, Brian, how do I wanna ask this? Because I hear in you in a much, I'm gonna say my experience in a much less high stakes way, I guess, right? So I think I could think back to many points in my career where I made decisions that ran counter to what was expected of a grad student or professor, right?
Bryan Dewsbury:And maybe I am a little stubborn too, but also I think, thankfully, most of those decisions worked out. But when I look back, what kind of carried me through is those decisions were guided by a very deeply rooted value system, right, in that, like, I knew why I was doing it. It wasn't just it looked cool and I just like to try a bunch of things. It's like, no, no, you know, my parents told me, you know, growing up, you know, preachers kids, it kind of had a similar environment and anything, you know, the advice was you make decisions, whether it's your partner, whether it's your career, whatever, you make it guided by your values. So I wonder, as I'm hearing you say this, I'm wondering how much of it was just conviction and how much of it was you found you were able to re tap into your value system.
Bryan Dewsbury:And once you did that, it became a like a father forgive them for the know not what they do kind of situation. Like, they don't understand, they don't understand why. Yeah. The why behind why you're being driven, right? And so, you know, you say, okay, I see why you think it's a bad idea, but you know, I'm responding to something different that you don't understand.
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I felt a deep sense of calling. I felt that there's a need and my skills, the opportunities I've been exposed to align with, Like the overlap is too significant between the need and then what I can share from my own experience and what the feedback on the ground is. Like the overlap is too significant for me to not see it as this is what I'm being called into.
Dr. Heather Beem:So I felt that I was For me, it was a step of faith and a lot of the feedback I was The pushback I was hearing felt like it was coming from a place of fear. And I felt I'm not gonna make a decision about my life based on other people's fears. I'm gonna do this out of faith. That seems more fruitful.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay. So, I mean, it's all well and good to talk about this now, eight years later, the nonprofit is going great. I'm thinking about the undergraduates that I teach. Okay. I'm even thinking about the grad students that I have the pleasure of mentoring and many of whom, some of whom have expressed strong desires to do good in the world, really impact humanity in a profound way at some point in their life, but very often at 20 or 25, like you can't even begin to think about what that looks like, right?
Bryan Dewsbury:If you are granted the opportunity to speak to students, which I'm sure you probably have from time to time, and they are facing up that kind of question, right? Like I would love to do something like what you're doing. Now maybe not necessarily run a nonprofit, and who knows where my why will take me. But I don't quite know, like, what is sort of the first thing, right? Because somebody might say, well, it's great what you're doing, Heather, but MIT had a d lab.
Bryan Dewsbury:And maybe if you didn't have a D lab, would have done something else, but they had a D lab. And that D lab got you this exposure, which then sort of generated this idea. If you had sort of specific things to say to students who are of that mindset, what would you tell them?
Dr. Heather Beem:I would say be proactive. Be proactive and explore to find the thing that really resonates with you, which might take time. It might take a lot of time and, you know, false starts and figuring things out. But I think be proactive, don't wait. If you know that you have a desire to go out there and make an impact, don't wait for the opportunity to come to you, be proactive and look for where you can fit in.
Dr. Heather Beem:And then be prepared for the pushback. Because most likely people are gonna say that it doesn't make sense. If it doesn't fit in a nice box, then there's probably gonna be pushback. So be prepared for that, but be ready to move with your conviction. If you do feel convicted, be ready to move through that pushback.
Bryan Dewsbury:Yeah. What if the follow-up question, I'm thinking of your audience right now, Heather, right? I'm thinking of you in that auditorium and you give that great response and then somebody else raises their hand and said, but Doctor. Behm, how do I know what my conviction is? How do I find that out?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, I think that can take, well, maybe for me, it took some time, took some time to figure that out. That's why I would say be proactive and explore because a lot of us have multiple interests, but then finding where our interests align with where an actual need is, that will take some time. So I think it requires being proactive.
Bryan Dewsbury:It almost sounds like there's a little bit of serendipity. So in exploring, you get exposed to these different experiences and perhaps one of those experiences, the one that you may not even think might impact you the way it will impact you in a particular way that gets that light bulb on, right? You know, I never, I honestly never thought I would like teaching. In fact, I had probably convinced myself that I didn't like it because I was told early on in Grasberg at least that teaching was a waste of time. But when I finally got the chance to do it, I mean, was just, it was a whole other level, right?
Bryan Dewsbury:And I don't know if there's a formula for that other than be open to new experiences.
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, that's true.
Bryan Dewsbury:Do you get pushed back now?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, from my parents. Yeah, my parents really, really want me to be back in The US.
Bryan Dewsbury:When are gonna get a real job again?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, mainly from them. But we'll see how everything plays out in the future. It still feels like there's a lot of momentum behind what we're doing. There's a lot of opportunity for growth and expansion. I'm very excited about seeing this work expand to multiple countries.
Bryan Dewsbury:When you dream, what do your dreams look like in terms of Penn? So what is sort of the perfect version of Penn that you've daydreamed about?
Dr. Heather Beem:I would love for us to have a presence like country offices across the continent, at least in each of the key regions, West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa. And just seeing this diffusion happening, the diffusion of hands on approaches happening organically, but at a large scale across the continent. That's what I look forward to seeing.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay. What kind of staffing do you have now? And what would it look like for that dream to happen?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, that dream will require much more staff than we currently do. We have a small team, but small but mighty. We have about eight full time staff in Ghana and then a handful of part time folks. So about a dozen folks in the office there. And hopefully by this time next year, we'll have a handful of folks in Liberia on staff too.
Dr. Heather Beem:But yeah, to have, we'll need equivalent, at least five, six people in each of those country offices moving forward. Okay.
Bryan Dewsbury:Let me ask about the experiments themselves. Do you call them?
Dr. Heather Beem:We call them activities.
Bryan Dewsbury:Activities, sorry, let's say activities. That's yeah, probably more accurate. I think it's great. I think they're great. You know, remember I watched a couple of videos on website of examples of stuff that you have done.
Bryan Dewsbury:And, but I also wanted to align here because I don't want a perpetual assumption that these countries will always be resource poor and will thus require, you know, the basic materials type of experience to learn science. At the same time, I also don't necessarily think that you need to have $5,000 machines to learn science. So, you know, when I hear you describe some of the things that as activities, you know, I think less of that the area, the region, the school, the country is resource poor. I actually think more of these are really fundamental skills that I want a critically minded citizen to have And a school anywhere, Ghana or anywhere else does not need to spend $5,000 a student to teach those skills. And so I guess I'm wondering how do you navigate?
Bryan Dewsbury:The reality is that a lot of the areas you work with are resourceful and so there's a need for what you're doing and an appreciation for what you're doing. But at the same time, I'm sure you and certainly me don't want people just assuming that once they hear the A word, once they hear Africa, they then assume resource pool. Like how do you handle that tug of war?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah. And that's interesting because, you know, a lot of I've heard a number of ministers and assistant ministers speak on various platforms from African countries and, you know, they get very excited about talking about infrastructure. I mean, perhaps that's true for political figures everywhere, I suppose, but
Bryan Dewsbury:You've been to Chicago?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yes. Okay. Yeah. So there's, I definitely that's the way, I mean, yes, infrastructure is gonna improve over time because that's a lot of where government is putting their attention. So yes, even where school doesn't seem to have much now, we hope that in the future that won't be their story.
Dr. Heather Beem:So yeah, perhaps it's a branding thing that we have to refine, but I think, the underlying thing that we're really interested in is the hands on piece. And so what we wanna see is a shift from very theoretical abstract teaching to a very hands on experiential teaching. That's fundamentally what we're interested in. The materials is just whatever you have available. Let's work with that.
Dr. Heather Beem:If you don't have anything, we'll work with what's available in the found environment. If you have a lab, great, but let's still make sure that you're using the lab in a very hands on way.
Bryan Dewsbury:Yeah, okay. Because you know what, as you know, I teach intro bio, well, that's one of the classes that I teach, but one of the labs that I taught when I was a grad student, my favorite lab is like the cheapest lab ever, is yeast and a sugar source and a test tube in a beaker, right? And I guess you have a buddy test tube in the beaker, you're able to ferment the sugar and measure alcohol production rates, right? And it was a very powerful exercise, it costs like $8 And yeah, so I mean, you know it's possible, right? And I guess I just wanna communicate that just because even if you educate in a US context doesn't necessarily mean you have to run down the most expensive things, right?
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah, and I think when you use the local materials, there's also, there's another level of engagement because students don't It's not like the long name of chemical that they're working with. They're like, okay, this is something that I recognize from my daily life. So then there's an ability to see that science is real. It's connected to their life. If they're using things that they recognize like yeast or whatever.
Dr. Heather Beem:Okay.
Bryan Dewsbury:I'm gonna stay there forever. You know you've gotten that question. Oh yeah,
Dr. Heather Beem:yeah, from my mom all
Bryan Dewsbury:the time. And I know you probably don't even know the answer to it.
Dr. Heather Beem:Perhaps not forever, because like we were talking about earlier, I think ideally whatever we're doing should be locally led and driven as much as possible. So I don't know if my rule will need to be the same in perpetuity. But for now, it's definitely home base for now. And like I said, I'm excited about seeing our work expand to other countries. So I envision for now I'll be in Ghana, but perhaps hopping around a little bit to get things started elsewhere.
Bryan Dewsbury:All right, I'm gonna, I'll let you out of here on this one. And this is a very, very, very important question. So I'm assuming that since you're now based in Accra, that you've had the pleasure of traveling a little bit throughout that region. Know Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, am I correct?
Dr. Heather Beem:A few places, yeah.
Bryan Dewsbury:Okay. I'm gonna guess you
Dr. Heather Beem:in a real trouble. Oh my gosh, oh no.
Bryan Dewsbury:Which one makes the best show off rice?
Dr. Heather Beem:Well, I can't, There's no way I You can go against
Bryan Dewsbury:can be truthful here. You don't have to protect yourself. I'm sure if it was somebody else, the Ghanaians will forgive you. You know, I used to do this every year. So I taught at University of Rhode Island for seven years.
Bryan Dewsbury:And there's a lot of West Africans who migrated to Rhode Island over time. And every year for my class, I would just stand in front and say, which of you makes the best jeweler? My gosh. They would be Pandemonium.
Dr. Heather Beem:Yeah. I can imagine.
Bryan Dewsbury:Oh my goodness. I only had the Ghanaian version. I had a friend in Rhode Island from Liberia and his was really good too. But, yeah. So real wars will fought over that question.
Dr. Heather Beem:Ghana, Ghana. I have to stick with Ghana.
Bryan Dewsbury:You have to stick with Ghana. Hey Heather, thanks for spending some time with us.
Dr. Heather Beem:My pleasure, enjoy Thank you.
Bryan Dewsbury:Knowledge Unbound is brought to you by the RIOS Institute for Racially Just Inclusive Open STEM Education. We are graciously funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Knowledge Unbound is produced by the impeccable mister Segev Amasai. It was a pleasure. Special thanks to our guest, doctor Heather Beam, for sharing her story with us.
Bryan Dewsbury:Special thanks to our studio guest who graciously lent us, I don't know, maybe twenty seconds of their time, Alice.
Dr. Heather Beem:You're very welcome.
Bryan Dewsbury:I'm very welcome. You know, well, today that you know, Heather talked to us about not necessarily waiting for big, high money investments to transform education about being comfortable with what you have, where you are, and making that transformative. I just want maybe a quick word from both of you about an experience that you may have had where you just had to make do. You had to make something happen, and you found a way to do that. Magdhi, you wanna start?
Megdalawed Derivi:I I think that's the entirety of life I come from a developing country where money is always an issue and if I had more money I'd do this I'd apply there but you just have to make do with what you have and make sure you're just ready for whatever opportunity presents itself. So I think that's a broader lesson in life particularly for people who come from a financially constrained background let me say.
Bryan Dewsbury:Not just for education Alice. For sure.
Dr. Heather Beem:She had such
Alice Apostolakos:a good answer. I mean yeah I'd say about the same. I'm a first gen immigrant too. I come from a developing country as well Bulgaria. So I feel like a lot of my life, like, growing up being the first in my family to go to college here and, you know, I got into a bunch of colleges that I wanted to go to, but I could only afford to go here.
Alice Apostolakos:Know, we talked about that further in my episode, which,
Bryan Dewsbury:know It's coming soon. It's soon.
Alice Apostolakos:But, yeah, just I think also, like, mentally and emotionally, like, accepting what you have and not living in, like, the expectations of what you want to have of, like, oh, I need to have this and
Dr. Heather Beem:I need to have
Alice Apostolakos:that in order to be happy, but,
Dr. Heather Beem:like, being happy with what you have
Alice Apostolakos:now Like Yeah. Seeing the beauty in the now, I think.
Bryan Dewsbury:And it was it was I don't wanna say it was a tough episode because I really enjoyed it, but I think I was navigating attention throughout where I I applaud the theme of equanimity. I applaud the theme of being in a space of contentment and making do and making something positive and meaningful happen. But I also wish for a world where those brilliant, wonderful students can be open to much more possibilities. Those of us from the outside can see what they can accomplish given what was available, oh my god, what more could happen? Should we take the time to just add 2% more?
Bryan Dewsbury:Right? Yeah. And my hope, my friends, is that this is the lesson you take from today. Right? That whatever classroom you're in, whatever city you're in, whatever country you're in, whatever subject matter that you are asked to teach, you have beauty in front of you and it's just up to us to make the most of that.
Bryan Dewsbury:See you next week and as always, be excellent to each other.
Dr. Heather Beem:We see a future where when students go to school across the African Continent, they're doing activities, they're doing experiments, they're doing projects. And in the process, they're cultivating critical thinking, problem solving, technical skills that will enable them to become the change makers and innovators to drive development of their communities forward. What I would love to see in the future, and I think we're getting there, is what I would love to see is that STEM teachers in Africa are actually seen as exemplars of hands on teaching because they need to be resourceful to teach effectively. I would like to see that that's that becomes, a trend that instead of, you know, knowledge or ideas seemingly having to be imported from somewhere into Africa, we can actually export some of these things.