AN INTRODUCTION TO STEM COURSES AND CAREERS THROUGH A BRIEF HISTORICAL NARRATIVE OF THE TUSKEGEE MOVABLE SCHOOL

Abstract

76 No.1 AN INTRODUCTION TO STEM COURSES AND CAREERS THROUGH ARRIEF HISTORICAL NARRATIVE OF THE TUSKEGEE MOVADLE SCHOOL By Audra M. Akins How do students view history and science? Do students see history and science as disparate and distinct or connected and dependent? Further, do students see themselves in said history and science? It is paramount in today's educational climate that students gain an inclusive, culturally diverse, and connected view of history and science as America places a new focus on study and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). African American, Latino, and female students are often intimidated by the study of STEM courses. It is imperative to place a culturally sensitive historical narrative of science before students, as it can help to bolster their interest in STEM courses and eventually careers. Smulyan writes: Because the history of technology emphasizes how and why people designed and used technological processes over time, and challenges popular myths about technological determinism, the Society for the History of Technology believes that using the historical approach can be especially empowering to students previously intimidated by science and engineering studies.1 It is therefore important that students are able to make historical connections to contributions in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) that place their heritage at the center of said activities. Hence, I will share a brief historical narrative of the Tuskegee Movable School that shows the active and participative role that African Americans played in the dissemination and teaching of scientific agriculture 20 I BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN Vol. 76, No. 1 (Science/Technology/ Engineering), home economics (Finance/Math), and health education (Science/ Technology). This narrative provides linkages to the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math along with cross-references to historical figures, periods, and institutions. A Brief History of the Tuskegee Movable School The Tuskegee Movable School was an innovation created by Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver during the late 1880s. Both Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver are seminal figures in the canon of the history of America and African American history specifically; Carver is noted for his scientific genius, while Washington is seen as a great educator, author, and leader. The Movable School was created through their collaboration and operated from 1906 to 1944 in and around the city of Tuskegee, Alabama. Washington's self-help philosophy of rural uplift with farming techniques formulated by Carver laid the foundation for the development of the courses taught in the Tuskegee Movable School. The Movable School would grow during a forty year period from a horse-drawn wagon to a motorized truck that carried a full staff, including a nurse that taught farmers and their families through practical education. The educational philosophy of the Tuskegee Movable School, like that of all agricultural extension work, was to teach by example to a mostly illiterate clientele.2 Courses on farming techniques, home economics, and health education were taught to promote a self-sustaining community concept. Thomas Monroe Campbell was one of those who taught in the Tuskegee Movable School, and he served as the nation's first agricultural extension agent. In 2010, Mr. Campbell was inducted into the National United States Department of Agriculture Hall of Heroes.3 The Movable School carried practical agricultural courses to the African American community near the campus of the Tuskegee Institute during the later period of Reconstruction and into the periods of segregation and Jim Crow legislation. This informal education helped many farmers and families who would otherwise not receive any form of training to help with developing their farming techniques, practices of health and hygiene, and home economics. This form of education came to be formally known as the Agricultural Experiment Station concept, which would later grow into the Farmers Cooperative Extension Demonstration, closely related to the Cooperative Extension Services offered by the United States Department of Agriculture. The Tuskegee Movable School sheds light on the innovative use of technology and science of the historical period to provide practical education to a mostly illiterate and highly underserved population of Blacks living in a devitalized Macon County, Alabama. The "Moveable School Project" developed into one of Washington's largest...