In Bay State, kindergartners to learn about mechanical engineering

Henry Baumgartner
ASME NEWS

Children need to start learning about engineering at a young age because "technological literacy is no luxury — it's now basic," said Ioannis Miaoulis, who is Dean of Engineering at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

In the fall, the ASME member's 13-year effort to require children in the United States to start learning about engineering in kindergarten will begin to bear fruit — at least in the state of Massachusetts, where engineering will be part of the curriculum in several schools selected by the state to participate in a pilot program.

In Massachusetts, the standards that determine what children should learn are revised every few years. In 1998, Miaoulis was asked to participate in the most recent revision of science and technology standards.

ASME member Ioannis Miaoulis, dean of engineering at Tufts University, advocates that engineering education begin at the kindergarten level. "Technological literacy is no luxury — it's now basic," he said. His advocacy of early engineering education started 13 years ago.

Since technology education had become somewhat of a backwater in many schools, identified with industrial arts and relegated to a dusty shop somewhere in the basement, Miaoulis said his participation was "a great opportunity to shift the field closer to engineering, to focus on learning about technology and about the integration of science and design."

Miaoulis had worked toward that opportunity for 13 years at Tufts, where, he said, "We've been working to enhance science learning and to introduce engineering into the schools." To bring about that change at the state level, he explained, a number of constituencies had to be persuaded.

First, there was the state department of education. "They were open to change," Miaoulis said. The technical education teachers were next. The vast majority were excited, he said, because they saw an opportunity to gain a more prominent position in the schools — as teachers of engineering rather than of shop class.

For the elementary school teachers, who have a lot to teach, the changes were more daunting. "We just had to demonstrate that a lot of what they currently do is engineering," Miaoulis said, and that the retraining required would not be as extensive as they feared.

The last constituency to be won over was the state board of education. In December, the board voted, 7 to 0, to adopt the new standards and require the teaching of engineering at all grade levels in Massachusetts schools.

Some experimental classes will begin in the fall. Within a couple of years, Miaoulis said, the program should be expanded to all public schools in the state.

Though his goal for Massachusetts was accomplished, Miaoulis' work is not done. The next step is to export this concept to the other 49 U.S. states. Miaoulis is hoping to create a network of universities in every state to serve as partners to champion the process in their states. "States that already have standards are probably the easiest," he noted.

Why is it important to teach engineering in grade schools, anyway? First, Miaoulis said, "Engineering in these grades offers a wonderful range of problems and projects" that can encourage a kid to "pull together a range of disciplines and see a project through from start to finish."

Second, learning about engineering in school can encourage children from underrepresented groups to imagine a career as an engineer. "And we need engineers desperately," Miaoulis observed.

Third, "Kids today play with computers; they don't tinker and build things. Their spatial skills may become limited. Introducing engineering into younger grades can sharpen these skills."

"ASME is working to take the concept now at work in Massachusetts to the national level," Miaoulis said, especially with raising the consciousness of the issue in Congress.

In fact, according to Patti Burgio of ASME's Government Relations office in Washington, Miaoulis is scheduled early this month to address a breakfast briefing for Washington movers and shakers, to talk about the Massachusetts effort.

"We're trying to educate folks in the capital" about the need for federal funding for technical education and professional development resources for tech teachers, Burgio said.

ASME is cooperating with the International Technology Education Association, which publishes standards for technological literacy (see its Web site, www.iteawww.org), in trying to encourage senators and representatives to support math, science, engineering and technology education.

Three bills (H.R.100, 101 and 102) along this line are being sponsored by Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Mich. Burgio said ASME members who want to support this effort should encourage their local school boards and others to examine the issue.

Decision makers at the local level need to understand that "we spend much more time in school learning about how volcanoes work than about how cars work," Miaoulis said, "but we spend much more time in cars than we do in volcanoes."

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