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Celeste Baine's thoughts, perceptions and ideas about marketing engineering education.

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Formerly known as the Engineering Education Advocate

Archives

Books by Celeste Baine

Is There an Engineer Inside You?: A Comprehensive Guide to Career Decisions in Engineering

Engineers Make a Difference: Motivating Students to Pursue an Engineering Education

Sustainable Energy Engineering Teacher's Guide

Roller Coaster Engineering Teacher's Guide

Teaching Engineering Made Easy: A Friendly Introduction to Engineering Activities for Middle School Teachers

The Musical Engineer: A Music Enthusiast's Guide to Engineering and Technology Careers
The Fantastical Engineer

The Fantastical Engineer: A Thrillseeker's Guide to Careers in Theme Park Engineering - Second Edition

High Tech Hot Shots: Careers in Sports Engineering

Ingenuity

My good friend Pete, an avid promoter of engineering, sent me this email yesterday. Although I'm sure that most of us are happy and maybe thrilled to see money being infused into the STEM movement, does it also make you feel frustrated, agitated or left out? Is engineering getting the credit it deserves?

From Pete....

"I sort-of wish we could change the acronym "STEM" to something else.

Engineering derives from the the Latin "ingens" (which we use in "ingenuity"), and "engine-ers" are the people who "do" ingenuity (just like a "farm-er" 'does' farming).

Ingenuity came hundreds of thousands of years before science, and early engineers invented mathematics and science (the Scientific Method, too) as tools for them to improve on existing technology.

From broken stones, to chipped stones (tekking), to language (agreeing, in Greek, is "nai"), to logging the process in words ("logos").  How can we talk to our kids honestly if we keep saying "Science and Math are important" when in fact doing science or math results only in a concept -- a technology.  If we don't practice the concept, no one benefits from it."

What do you think?

Posted by Celeste Baine on January 24, 2012

Talkback

From Devin Rains - I have long felt that Engineers and Architects need to take back the meaning of their titles. When a child hears the title engineer they think of trains, and today's children upon hearing the title architect think of the internet and computing.

"The word 'architect,' which in one guise or another is common to all the modern European languages, is derived from the ancient Greek. Just as an archbishop is the head bishop, the architekton was the chief teckton, which is to say he was the chief carpenter. The Sanskrit word for archtect, sthapati, as well as the Mandarin chientsu-shu, also means 'master builder.' They all suggest that what architects 'do' is to build." (Rybczynski, The Most Beautiful House in the World).

As an instructor in the Architectural Technologies Program at Madison College we too fall within the STEM umbrella as an applied engineering curricullum. I look forward to sharing the message that what we do, we do with ingenuity and when we build we need the skills, math/science,etc., to be the chief builder.

Posted at 7:57 AM PST on January 24, 2012

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From Don Morgan - I agree wholeheartedly. Many academics see STEM as Science, Educational Technology, and Math. The "E" is left out altogether, usually because they don't have a clue what it is. When questioned about the Technology, I get "Oh we use laptops, LCD projectors, etc." GEEEZZ!!

Posted at 7:46 AM PST on January 24, 2012

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