TEEM-UP for K-12 inspiring technological literacy in U.S.

Patti Curtis
ASME Government Relations

Teams representing more than 25 institutions of higher education attended an ASME Math/Science Partnership workshop called "Teams of Engineers, Educators and Mathematicians for K-12," or TEEM-UP.

The workshop, held in March in Clearwater, Fla., was funded by the U.S. Department of Education to educate engineering departments about the need to work with teacher colleges and the availability of federal and state funding opportunities.

Panel presentations to the approximately 100 people attending the workshop focused on pre-service and in-service teacher training programs, partnership development and funding opportunities.

In his keynote presentation, Ioannis Miaoulis, president of the Museum of Science in Boston and former dean of engineering at Tufts University, underscored the workshop theme: Increasing student achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education must start with increasing teacher knowledge.

He stressed that instructional materials and other offerings must be aligned with state standards.

"Yannis" is seen as the driving force behind the revision of the Massachusetts curriculum for science and technology standards to include engineering in all elementary and secondary grades.

He spoke of his dream: to foster technological literacy in the United States, and to make "engineering" a word everyone understood and a profession young people would at least have a chance to select.

"Why should kids learn engineering in kindergarten?" he asked. "Why not wait until we teach them math and science, and then at college they can study engineering? I believe that engineering in grades K-12 will give children the problem-solving and design skills they need to understand our sophisticated, three-dimensional technological world."

He said he advocates early exposure to engineering skills because they "offer a foundation for problem-based learning and can serve as a catalyst for integrating knowledge from all disciplines."

Yannis added that including engineering in all elementary and secondary grades is necessary because "technological literacy is basic literacy. We live in a technological world, but in school we learn almost nothing about this world because the curriculum was designed 100 years ago when technology was much less pervasive."

TEEM-UP presentations and related math/science partnership resources can be found on www.asme.org/education/precollege/teemup/index.htm.

 

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