March 16, 2011, IEDEC, Santa Clara, CA—Thomas Zimmerman, member of research staff and master inventor at IBM talked about the efforts to open the pipeline of students at the lower grades to consider college and engineering. His talk, "Building electronic circuits in the classroom; accessible, engaging, and educational" looked at a couple of local programs that opened a different view of technology to students. It is good to hear about the work in the universities on readying graduates for work, but there is a great need to get more children to consider that educational direction in the first place.
Zimmerman's first efforts to introduce science, technology engineering, and math (STEM) to young kids was in an elementary school. The content was structured around play and hands-on experiences. One lesson involved handing out LEDs, 9V batteries, and resistors to the kids. All of the components are very cheap, with the batteries costing the most. One of the first lessons the kids learn is that electronics failures smell and blow up. After they destroy a few LEDs, they find out that wires with alligator clips permit them to insert a resistor into the circuit.
Through their experiences, the children learn some basic technology. They learn to draw a circuit schematic, that different resistor values change current and LED intensity, and that the different colors on the resistors indicate values. They can find out about the resistance values by measuring the resistors on a DVM and that semiconductors have polarity. Somehow, they apply Ohm's law and get the LEDs lit.
Other teaching modules address physics and vision persistence. The students work on more advanced circuits that include a 555 timer and a 4017 counter/decoder. By installing the components on a proto board, they can the resistors, capacitors, ICs and LEDs to make a flashing LED display. One crowd pleaser is to let the kids write their names with the flashing LEDs. By providing role models and some basic components and tools, elementary school students are exposed to the wonders and value of electronics and technology.
Moving up to the high school level creates new challenges. The older students have a poor image model of engineers, the myopic "brainiac" in a white lab coat. To make things more difficult, high school offers many competing alternatives for time and attention, and the normal curriculum has no time or space for "fun" labs. As a result, the high school program is set up as an after school activity. The saving grace in this program was that the high school is located on the campus of the National Hispanic University.
The school's location provides relative safety and an atmosphere of academic endeavors. For many of the students, this is the first time they have seen older people doing things besides hanging out. The after school program has an emphasis on "lab, fab, and gab" type activities to introduce concepts and allow the students to do hands-on work. The goal is to encourage the budding scholars to consider career paths that go through a college degree program.
The projects are more involved, like robotics with Lego Mindstorms and Power kits. Once again, this is one of the first times that the students get exposed to STEM concepts. At this level, it is important to get the parents involved in the educational process. For many of the students, they will be the first ones in their family to even consider attending college. Setting this high a goal is immeasurably more difficult if the parents are not supportive. Fortunately, they are seeing a lot of enthusiasm from the students and parents for the various programs in the after school activities.
Although these are small scale programs at the local level, they demonstrate the value of introducing STEM to the kids at all levels in the school system. These programs foster an improved image of scientists and engineers to a new generation of students. There are many resources and programs available for people to join and contribute time and resources, so don't be shy.