Page 56 - Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11338.html

GUIDEPOSTS TO THE FUTURE 39

can be defined simplistically as observation, experimentation, and docu-
mentation that allows for generalized statements concerning patterns in
nature. Conversely, “engineering strives to design and manufacture use-
ful devices or materials, defined as technologies, whose purpose is to
increase our efficacy in the world and/or our enjoyment of it” (Massa-
chusetts Department of Education, 2001, p. 3).
NSF is supporting the development of the National Science Digital
Library (NSDL) to provide “educational resources for science, technol-
6
ogy, engineering and mathematics education.” One of the collections
being funded through the NSDL program is called TeachEngineering.com.
This collaboration consists of engineering educators at several Research-
7
Extensive institutions that were previously awarded grants in NSF’s
8
Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education program. The project
brings together the knowledge and content created by these separate
efforts, gives the content materials a “common look and feel,” and
provides a system architecture that allows K-12 teachers to search the
collection in a variety of ways (subject matter, content domain, grade
level, national standards, and selected state standards). The goal of
TeachEngineering is to rapidly build on the number of curricular units
in the collection and to map all content to standards of all 50 states. 9
These efforts and others represent real progress in changing the pub-
lic understanding of engineering and should, over time, begin to en-
hance the recruitment of students into engineering who are knowledge-
able of the field and prepared academically for its rigors. The goal for
higher education is to connect these students to a curriculum that is
challenging, exciting, and relevant to student interests. Summit attend-
ees advocated for a curriculum designed around grand challenges that
would serve to engage and inspire students in a way that makes the
engineer’s contribution to society more explicit.

6 See http://www.nsdl.org/about/.
7 These institutions typically offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs, and they are
committed to graduate education through the doctorate. During the period studied, they
awarded 50 or more doctoral degrees per year across at least 15 disciplines. From http://
www.carnegiefoundation.org/Classification/CIHE2000/defNotes/Definitions.htm.
8 A description and solicitation are available online at http://www.nsf.gov/funding/
pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5472&from=fund.
9 Jacquelyn Sullivan, Lead Principal Investigator of TeachEngineering.com, personal
communication, January 4, 2005.

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