A Homeschooled Engineer
Sometimes, when I waltz into my office at my preferred lovely hour of 10:30am, ready to tackle a project in the machine shop, I think to myself “How did I get so lucky?” And other times, when I’m still staring at a white-light interferometer at midnight on a Friday, looking for subtle fringes so I can take a measurement, I have to ask, “What did I do to get myself into this?” Other bloggers this week have told their stories of how they have gotten to where they are – for some software was the gateway to a career, for some being flexible was the key. There’s been discussion on how to find room for passion in every opportunity, even if that passion can burn you out eventually. My story is a story about taking advantage of every opportunity I could grab. And a lot of those opportunities came out of…
Tinkering as a valid part of education
A profesor I once knew began a conversation with, “What classes are you taking this semester?” I responded, “I’m taking a class on teaching, a-” “Teaching?! Why are you taking a class on teaching? You don’t need a class to learn how to teach. You just do it.” The irony of this is that this professor was considered one of the worst teachers in the whole department. Chris’ post on a ‘tinkering class’ got me thinking (again) about what is really a good way to educate people. And despite some of the comments on Reddit, Chris is actually on the right track for some of the more current thinking on approaches to STEM education. So what do you want from someone educated in a STEM field? Obviously they have to have a certain amount of background knowledge, they need to have problem solving skills, they need to be inquisitive and…