October 2007 — Features
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Problem Solvers
US students continue to lag behind the rest of the world in the four core STEM subjects. The answer, many believe, is a practical approach to instruction: project-based
JEREMIE MEYER, AN INSTRUCTOR IN MECHANICAL engineering and manufacturing, has two rooms at Preble High School in Green Bay, WI. One is a typical classroom. The other, connected by a small door, is a shop, with lathes, drill presses, tubing benders, and other equipment. Meyer's students pick their own teams and then design their own cars, using 3-D mechanical design and building information modeling software from Autodesk. They also make presentations to companies for sponsorships. One of their latest vehicles is 11.5 feet long, 47 inches wide, and 2 feet tall; it uses street-legal golf-cart tires and runs on four 48-volt batteries. Recently, Meyer and his students showed the car at a Wisconsin Public Service stockholders meeting, and the company president took it for a spin—at about 35 mph.
TALKING SHOP A team of Meyer's
engineering students poses with its newest
creation: a vehicle that runs entirely on
48-volt batteries.
Meyer's preference for hands-on learning is an outgrowth of his own education. He was always encouraged by his father to fix things, to rebuild cars. He had his pilot's license in high school, even before getting his driver's license, and his first teaching position was in auto mechanics. When he got to Preble, back in 1999, Meyer pitched a Principles in Engineering class to the school board. The course, he says, makes no pretense about where its principles lie: "This is how it's done in the real world, and this is what you need to know about it."
That last utterance is likely to be met with a chorus of amens. Indeed, it could serve as the watchword for 21st-century instruction in science, technology, engineering, and math—taken together, STEM. Meyer's course puts STEM teaching to practical use, which is the way many believe the material must be taught in order for it to appeal to students, who are tuning out math and science in droves because they don't see them as having any real-world purpose. But even as the United States falls further and further behind other countries in these four critical academic areas, not everyone sees it as a crisis. Fortunately, there are those who do.
One organization out front on the issue is, fittingly, Project Lead the Way. It was in one of PLTW's pre-engineering courses that Sarah Dodge was enrolled. Begun in 1997, PLTW gives students opportunities to get hands-on STEM experience by taking STEM classes as electives. The company currently offers programs for middle schools and high schools, all standardized, with evaluations:
- Middle school. "Gateway to Technology" includes Design and Modeling, Automation and Robotics, the Magic of Electrons, the Science of Technology, and Flight and Space.
- High school. "Pathway to Engineering" consists of Introduction to Engineering Design, Principles of Engineering, Digital Electronics, Aerospace Engineering, Biotechnical Engineering, Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Civil Engineering and Architecture, and Engineering Design and Development.
These classes can now be found in more than 1,300 schools in 45 states and the District of Columbia. PLTW helps set up partnerships between schools and businesses to supply the coursework and the teacher training.
