The engineers of K-12
A companion piece to "The future of engineering," celebrating T&MW's 25th anniversary.
Rick Nelson, Chief Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 9/1/2006 2:00:00 AM
COMPLETE ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE:
-The future of engineering
-Where are the women?
-Is engineering a profession?
-Industry and academia form symbiotic relationship
-The engineers of K–12
READ OTHER SEPTEMBER ARTICLES:
Contents, September 2006
College students represent the immediate future of engineering, but the longer term talent now attends K–12. In a panel discussion held at last month's NIWeek trade show, Mary Wells, senior program officer for the Texas STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) project, described efforts to improve STEM education in 35 pilot programs in Texas high schools. For younger children, Jens Maibom, Lego education VP, said his company has worked with National Instruments to develop the LabView-programmable Lego Mindstorms NXT. In the First Lego League—the "little league" of the high-school-level First Robotics Competition (www.usfirst.org)—children aged 9 through 14 employ Mindstorms to gain experience in technology.
Panelist Leah Jamieson, dean of the Purdue College of Engineering, described ways to improve engineering's attractiveness as a career path through the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program, which she co-founded. EPICS, she said, emphasizes engineers' roles as citizens and demonstrates that engineering is a helping profession. Jamieson also suggested that training teachers in K–12 technical education would help. “We are systematic about how we teach electrical engineering and mechanical engineering,” she said, adding that there is an opportunity to be systematic in teaching engineering educators as well.
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Courtesy of Lego. |
For additional information on First, STEM, Legos, and other educational initiatives and tools:
Suzanne Deffree, news editor at sibling publication Electronic News, has written more about the NIWeek education panel discussion (including more on the STEM initiative) here, and she has written more on the First program here.
The Web site of the Texas Education Agency provides more information about the STEM initiative.
You can learn more about the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot (pictured) here and read the press announcement that Lego and NI released when they announced the project in January 2006 here.
Also, see Nelson's related blog postings on the topic of engineering education.
Complete anniversary coverage:
-The future of engineering
-Where are the women?
-Is engineering a profession?
-Industry and academia form symbiotic relationship
-The engineers of K-12
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