Couldn't agree more Richard, coming at it from my art background, what a fantastic thing it is to get hands-on grubby and a bit sweaty and really feel you've made something beautiful, functional, or both.
Ignition* project run 'Lab 13', a space in a primary school equipped with a scientist on hand and kit for students to investigate their own science off their own bat, run by students for students, and inspired by Room 13 - a successful art room in a school in Fort William.
http://www.ignitefutures.org.uk/ignition/lab-13/dovecote-primary-school-lab-created/
Perhaps the Engineering Part of STEM World could set up Workshop 13 in a secondary school somewhere, using that model?
Just a thought,
Katie Walsh
www.planet-science.com
www.planet-scicast.com
NESTA
From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Richard Ellam
Sent: 22 March 2010 22:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Science GCSE - a student's view
Hi All
On 18 Mar 2010, at 09:53, Michael Kenward wrote:
.
It might be slightly reassuring to know that the engineering bodies at
least are on the case.
They are aware of the fact that schools are notable for not having anyone on
staff who understands what engineering is all about. (Too many teachers
still deter would be engineers with misconceptions about mucky overalls.)
What's all this about mucky overalls being a deterrant to people becoming engineers?
I suspect that I may well be the only subscriber to Psci-Com who regularly works in a fairly basic engineering workshop, doing dirty but fascinating things like welding and turning and milling. I do these things in the course of making science demonstration kit for my own shows, and for other science show presenters - and I occasionally still design and make the odd bit of one-off machinery, too.
Having the chance to get my hands dirty was part of the reason I originally wanted to be a mechanical engineer - and being faced with a professional training which was almost entirely theoretical was one of the reasons I dropped out of my course. If, like my Dad, I'd been able to do a premium apprenticeship where I combined practical and theoretical studies I might well have stayed in engineering. But the practical training element has almost vanished from our preparation of professional engineers, and the universities turn out lots of very clever graduates, many of who are, in the words of a retired university lecturer in engineering, 'well educated wallies'.
I'd agree that teachers don't 'get' engineering - I recall hearing about a teacher leading a party to visit the Airbus wing plant near Chester, which is full of very clever manufacturing plant capable of (for example) turning out 30 meter long wing skins to a tolerance of less than 1 mm. Having watched the highly skilled workforce doing incredible things with aluminium alloys and composite materials on several hundred million quid's worth of kit the teacher turned to her class and said: "I hope you've all had a jolly good look at this place - its where you'll end up if you don't do well in your exams"!
My point is, I suppose twofold:
1. getting your hands (and overalls) dirty is, for some people, part of the fun
and
2. you don't have to be stupid or lack talent to enjoy getting mucky
If you're a sucessful sculptor, you're expected to actually make things yourself, and will be respected for it - why do so many supposedly educated people look down on those who have manual skills as well as intellectual ones, and use them for practical, rather than artistic, ends?
Is it, I wonder, because we make the cack-handed feel inferior?
Regards
Richard Ellam
L M Interactive
Science Shows and Hands-On Stuff
tel/fax 01761 412 797
www.lminteractive.co.uk
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