Engineering Better Education

By Suzanne Deffree -- Electronic News, 8/9/2006

AUSTIN, Texas – “Quiet crisis,” “cliff’s edge,” “gathering storm.” These were all phrases used to describe the state of science and math education in the United States during a NI Week panel today.

Specifically focused on encouraging the growth of engineering education, NI gathered four experts on the topic to determine what could be done about the country's disastrous state.

Noted Dr. Ben Streetman, dean of UT Austin’s College of Engineering, on average the U.S. produces 70,000 engineering graduates per year. While that number may sound strong, Streetman pointed out that that is also equivalent to the number of engineers the country imports every year.

“It’s a sort of sweet deal for U.S. taxpayers because they only pay for half of the education, but it’s a bad strategy,” he said.

Streetman told the audience that while 40 percent of China’s graduates leave higher-education with engineering degrees, only 5 percent of U.S. grads do. “More students graduate each year with a psychology degree than with an engineering degree,” he said. “You can argue that the health of the U.S. economy is more influenced by engineering than by psychology.”

Many in the industry have noted the education issue for years, lobbying the federal government for more support, complaining that the electronics industry has been given the short shrift in regard to research and the incentives necessary to draw the best and brightest into the high-tech world. President Bush finally answered the industry's cries this January in his State of the Union address committing more money to university R&D and saying his administration would clean up the immigration policy, which should make it easier for foreign students to attend universities and stay once they have degrees.

Further, Bill Gates declared his plans to do what he could to change the technology education situation when he announced his coming retirement from Microsoft in June. The move was backed by billionaire Warren Buffett, who later that month announced he would contribute 10 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock worth approximately $31 million to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest donation in U.S. history, to advocate Gates’ cause.

While the panel today was hopeful that the U.S.’s current situation could be corrected, it exampled three repeated issues throughout the four presentations, made by Streetman; Dr. Leah Jamieson, dean of Purdue University's College of Engineering; Jens Maibom, VP of LEGO Education; and Mary Wells, senior program officer of Texas-STEM, a high school project to encourage students toward engineering careers and a partner with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The first significant problem noted was the U.S. school system, itself. Teachers, who often have little engineering education themselves, are more frequently working with reduced budgets in overcrowded classrooms, cutting back on everything but basic school supplies and diminishing one-on-one student:teacher time. On top of that, each state determines what must be taught and at what time, leaving educators with cramped schedules and little room for inventive curriculums.

“Too few of our teachers have the dept of concept knowledge that they need to really confidently deliver their instruction, particularly at the high school level,” Wells said, pointing to Texas-STEM programs that help teachers get a better understanding of science and technology.

“On the other side of that coin, we have too many talented young people with that knowledge who opt out of teaching because there is not a career path in teaching and there is a compensation in teaching that rewards excellence at the same level as it does mediocrity.”

The second issue noted by the presenters was a lack of motivation for young people to go into technology careers.

“Children are curious, they want to know how things work,” Maibom said, encouraging tech teaching to kids at the elementary school age. “It’s not enough to talk about this at the high school level.”

Exampling little league, he continued to say that for children to stay interested, there needs to be a point to the effort, just as the point in baseball is to get a hit, run the bases and win the game. “When we talk about young people and motivation, we have to realize that this [school] year going forward has to be about competition. It should be hard, but hard fun.”

The last and most stressed issue against engineering in the U.S. was the general image of engineers and the stigma associated with students who excel in science and math.

“At the heart of our problem are stereotypes,” Jamieson said, noting the common misconceptions that engineers have no social skills, sit in cubicles all day and only have computers as friends. “We have to change how they think about it. We are actually out there contributing to the ways the world becomes a better place.”

Added Streetman of high schools students, “You can convince them that engineers are not nerds or you can convince them that nerds are OK.”