K-12 Engineering Education Standards: - International Technology ...

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directed toward a common purpose, and centered on different aspects of the educational system. In other words, they have not been coherently focused on common outcomes. A lack of coherence is clearly shown by many contemporary analyses of the relationships among curriculum instruction, assessment, and professional development. There is a fifth way national standards affect the educational system. National standards present policies for all students. By their very nature, national standards are policies that embrace equity. Answering the question—What should all students know and be able to do?—identifies the standards as a clear statement of equity. In the decade since release of the Standards, I have had many individuals ask if we really meant all. The answer is—yes. Of course, there are exceptions that prove the rule. Severely developmentally disabled students would be an example. But, the Standards still are explicit statements of equity. While developing the Standards, we were quite clear about the fact that many aspects of the education system would have to change to accommodate the changes they implied. For example, changes such as the reallocation of resources to increase achievement of those students most in need, were clearly understood by those most closely associated with the standards project. Have the Standards changed the fundamental components system-wide and achieved equity? No. But you will notice that I indicated they had the potential to do so. I would note that this nation has not achieved equal justice for all, but we hold this as an important goal, one that we do not plan to change because it has not been achieved. A Rationale The justification for developing engineering education standards rests on a foundation that includes both societal and educational perspectives. I begin with the societal perspective by looking first at history, in particular the 20th century. One stunning example supports the case for engineering education standards. In late 1999, the Newseum, a journalism museum in Washington, DC, conducted a survey of American historians and journalists to determine the top 100 news stories of the 20th century. As I read the list, I was surprised that of the top 100 headlines in the 20th century, over 40% were directly related to engineering and technology. This ranking of news stories seems to justify increased emphasis on engineering education and technological literacy, because it represents clearly what the public reads, hears, and values relative to engineering and technology. The high percentage of engineering-related historical events is only rivaled by political events, and many of those indirectly involved engineering. Table 2 lists the engineering-related events. I modified the original list by selecting the stories that had a direct component of engineering or technology. Each selection of Table 2 met one of these criteria: 1) the story clearly was about engineering/technology, 2) the story had clear connections to engineering/technology, or 3) the story forecasted future application for engineering/technology. As an interesting aside, in completing this analysis, I realized that nearly all headlines had some connection to engineering/technology. Although some might debate particular selections, it would be difficult to argue with the general conclusion that a significant percentage of important events in the 20th century were clearly and directly related to engineering/ technology. In the early years of the 21st century, I see no reason to predict fewer contributions by engineering/ technology, and I think it is reasonable to suggest there will be more. The justification for promoting engineering and technology seems clear. To the historical justification one can add contemporary challenges (see, e.g., the NAE Grand Challenges project, www.engineeringchallenges.org) that include the role of engineering and innovation in economic recovery, efficient use of energy resources, reduction of climate change risks, creation of green jobs, reduction of health care costs, increasing healthy life styles, ensuring defense, and technologies for national security. Turning to educational justifications for K-12 engineering education standards, I would first note the need for a widely accepted national statement of the goals and purposes of engineering education. I realize that individual curricula have goals. We can, for example, cite the historical goal from the 1970s Engineering Concepts Curriculum Project— technological literacy. Contemporary engineering curricula have similar goals (Katehi, Pearson, and Seder, 2009). With this recognition, I still suggest the need for a “widely accepted national statement” of the goals, purposes, and policies for engineering education. This observation leads to my next point. STEM is a popular acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. National standards exist for science (NRC, 1996), technology (ITEA/ ITEEA, 2000/2002/2007), and mathematics (NCTM, 2000). 24 • Technology and Engineering Teacher • February 2011
Engineering/ Technology Ranking Top 100 Ranking Year Headline 1 1 1945 U.S. Drops Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki: Japan surrenders to end World War II 2 2 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the moon 3 3 1941 Japan bombs Pearl Harbor: U.S. enters World War II 4 4 1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the first powered airplane 5 11 1928 Alexander Fleming discovers the first antibiotic, penicillin 6 12 1953 Structure of DNA discovered 7 17 1913 Henry Ford organizes the first major U.S. assembly line to produce Model T cars 8 18 1957 Soviets launch Sputnik, first space satellite: space race begins 9 20 1960 FDA approves birth control pill 10 21 1953 Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine proven effective in University of Pittsburgh tests 11 25 1981 Deadly AIDS disease identified 12 28 1939 Television debuts in America at New York World’s Fair 13 30 1927 Charles Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic in first solo flight 14 31 1977 First mass-market personal computers launched 15 32 1989 World Wide Web revolutionizes the Internet 16 33 1948 Scientists at Bell Labs invent the transistor 17 35 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis threatens World War III 18 36 1912 “Unsinkable” Titanic, largest man-made structure, sinks 19 40 1909 First regular radio broadcasts begin in America 20 41 1918 Worldwide flu epidemic kills 20 million 21 42 1946 “ENIAC” becomes world’s first computer 22 43 1941 Regular TV broadcasting begins in the United States 23 46 1909 Plastic invented: revolutionizes products, packaging 24 48 1945 Atomic bomb tested in New Mexico 25 51 1959 American scientists patent the computer chip 26 52 1901 Marconi transmits radio signal across the Atlantic 27 57 1962 Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring stimulates environmental protection movement 28 60 1961 Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space 29 61 1941 First jet airplane takes flight 30 64 1942 Manhattan Project begins secret work on atomic bomb: Fermi triggers first atomic chain reaction 31 66 1961 Alan Shepard becomes first American in space 32 70 1961 Communists build wall to divide East and West Berlin 33 75 1928 Joseph Stalin begins forced modernization of the Soviet Union; resulting famines claim 25 million 34 78 1900 Max Planck proposes quantum theory of energy 35 79 1997 Scientists clone sheep in Great Britain 36 80 1956 Congress passes interstate highway bill 37 81 1914 Panama Canal opens, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 38 83 1986 The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes, killing crew 39 87 1958 China begins “Great Leap Forward” modernization program, estimated 20 million die in ensuing famine 40 90 1962 John Glenn becomes first American to orbit the Earth 41 92 1997 Pathfinder lands on Mars, sending back astonishing photos 42 95 1978 Louise Brown, first “test-tube baby,” born healthy 43 96 1948 Soviets blockade West Berlin: Western allies respond with massive airlift 44 97 1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen start Microsoft Corp. to develop software for Altair computer 45 98 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion kills more than 7,000 *Modified from “The Top 100 News Stories of the 20th Century” (1999 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc.) Table 2. Engineering/Technology-Related News Stories of the 20th Century* 25 • Technology and Engineering Teacher • February 2011
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