Living In The Moment:Cancer Research and STEM Education

Something sad but beautiful today.

I was listening to a radio report in the car again this morning. They were talking about a new breakthrough in cancer treatment research. One of the difficulties in surgically removing cancer apparently is that is is often difficult to see exactly which are the cancerous cells and which are the healthy. But now a new technique has been developed which allows the “bad” tissue to be “painted” in a way that makes exact identification easier. Pretty cool!

The NPR interview I was listening to was with a surgeon named Jim Olson. Dr. Olson is part of a team that has been developing the “tumor paint”. He sounds like a great guy. Dr. Olson specializes in pediatric

A little ways into the interview, Dr. Olson, asked about what got him involved in a field where he is party to such sadness and death, said some things that resonated with me personally.

He said that he realized one day that he had a sort of gift for communicating with parents and kids faced with such tragedy. He had the ability to convey to them that life does not need to be long in order to be well lived and beautiful. For parents faced with the prospect of a dying child, these are powerful and helpful sentiments. We should all live like that. Life is fragile. Life can be short. Caught up in day to day problems we all often fail to live “in the moment” or maximize the life we have. As John Lennon once observed though, “Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans”.

Part of the interview involved a story about a particularly joyful moment in the latter stages of life for one of Dr. Olson's patients. The child, faced with approaching death, was able to enjoy a few minutes of simple happiness by participating in a snow ball fight. For a few minutes that child was happy and free of “death”.

This got me to thinking about the power of happiness. Kids are naturally more free of worry and preoccupation that are adults. They are far more likely to live “in the moment” quite organically. Their emotions are far more pure and free of conditioning.

This led me to my own occupation and how we approach learning. We deal with kids every day. I have seen classes in operation where the lesson was presented in a boring fashion. I have seen school shows preaching at kids. These approaches don't work. Kids quickly get bored. Years ago, as I was first starting to perform for children, an actor friend told me the main difference between adult audiences and child audiences was honesty. Kids don't have the same filters of politeness that adults have learned to employ. If they are bored, they let you know, and quickly.

Too often, education is boring to kids. Kids begin to view school as a chore. Who likes to do chores? Who wants to invest themselves in something unpleasant? On the other hand, we have often seen that when kids are presented with something fun, they dive in, quite unaware that in the process they are learning. From their point of view the learning is irrelevant, if noticed at all. They are having fun! But the learning goes on quite naturally regardless.

So it was that last week we were delighted as we watched the first performances of The STEM Theatre, our new hands on science program. Kids were buzzing all around the gym, happily engaged in multiple activities because these activities were fun. They were not sitting on the floor listening to another lecture, or passively watching something only mildly interesting. They were on their feet and engaged, actively participating in any of many different activities. They did not even notice that they were learning, but they were. They were joyously living in the moment and learning was occurring naturally and organically.

Without meaning to sound too pompous, this new approach to school assemblies, pioneered by The STEM Museum and other programs of a similar nature, may provide assistance in improving education. If kids can be shown that the things we are trying to teach them are fun, and that the process of learning can be fascinating and engaging, then they will want to participate, and school may no longer be seen as work.

Taken a step further, if we can teach children that learning can be fun, then by extension we may be able to lead them into seeing fields of employment that align with what they like. The old saying is that the man who loves his job never works a day in his life. If we lead kids into careers they love we will do them a great service. Especially if we lead them to discover the wonder and mystery of careers in the fields of science, technology and engineering that are so much a part of the future of humanity.

I am guessing that somewhere, a long time ago, someone found a way to do this for Dr. Olson, and helped him discover that what he loved lay in medicine and helping others. Look where that led him. How many more kids can we lead into something similar?

Personally, I love this work!

Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fieldsof science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN. He also spent ten years coordinating assembly programs for the elementary school where his own children went to school.