BIG IDEAS THE FUTURE OF ENGINEERING IN SCHOOLS

STOP THIS CRAZY
EARLY SPECIALISATION
MAKING SPACE
FOR MAKING THINGS
Louise Archer
King’s College
London
The UK has one of the most gender-biased
engineering workforces in Europe – women
make up just 6 percent of the UK engineering
community. The country has also had longstanding
difficulties persuading girls to choose
physics and mathematics at A-level and Higher/
Advanced Higher Grades, currently the key routes
to higher education engineering qualifications.
Professor Archer and colleagues have been
involved in projects examining the career
aspirations of young people, which have revealed
no lack of interest in engineering as a career.
However, girls are currently not attracted to
courses such as physics that are the principal
route of entry into such careers. Notably, those
who do study A-level physics typically recognise
(and relish the fact) that they are ‘different’ from
their peers.
Professor Archer argues that the UK education
system needs radical change in order to
‘normalise’ study of physics and mathematics.
In particular, there is a need to avoid the early
specialisation that tends to route young people
down arts and humanities or science-based
pathways early in life, which can rule out
engineering careers before students have had a
chance to consider them as options.
Baccalaureate-type approaches would also help
to produce more rounded engineers, and develop
engineering and technological literacy in those
not pursuing engineering careers. Crucially, this
more balanced approach might (alongside other
measures) encourage more young girls to consider
engineering – in part because it would potentially
expose more youngsters to the subject, and partly
because it would delay the decision-making
process during which time the students will have
matured and developed more considered insights.
Mark Miodownik FREng
University College
London
Professor Miodownik argues that the value
of ‘physically making things’ has been
underappreciated. Our education system has
long promoted academic learning as a higher
goal than practical-based study. This underplays
not only the intrinsic value of ‘making’ but also
the potential of practical activities to provide a
mechanism by which abstract learning can be
applied in practice.
He also suggests that this neglect of ‘making’
has profound long-term consequences, detaching
individuals from any sense of how the objects
they use in everyday life were designed and
made. It has encouraged the citizens of developed
countries to see themselves as ‘consumers’ rather
than ‘producers’, with unfortunate consequences,
particularly promoting unsustainable lifestyles.
Professor Miodownik proposes that schools should
develop ‘making spaces’, ideally at the heart of
school facilities. Such spaces would provide an
arena in which all students, of all academic levels,
would have the opportunity to make things. They
would provide spaces in which the theory taught
in academic classes could be applied practically.
They would also provide opportunities for crossdisciplinary
project-based collaborations, for
example between science and design students.
At UCL, Professor Miodownik has established
a facility, the UCL Institute of Making, that
supports such interdisciplinary collaboration. It
is well used by UCL staff at all levels and from
multiple disciplines.
14 Big Ideas: The Future of Engineering in Schools