Atlas Shrugged at the status quo

Two years ago, I set a goal for myself to start reading quintessential literary works. I began the journey of reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged in July 2008 (50th Anniversary Edition by Signet). Although I still have 300 pages to go, I came across a few quotes last night that seem to fit with the content of this course.

"Whether it's a symphony or a coal mine, all work is an act of creating and comes from the same source: from an inviolate capacity to see through one's own eyes - which means: the capacity to perform a rational identification - which means: the capacity to see, to connect and to make what has not been seen, connected, and made before" (718). The 'ah ha' moment in this quote came to me after finishing this week's readings. The buzz word that emerged from each of them was innovation. To me, the last part of the excerpt from the book is innovation.

The next excerpt may not necessarily fit with this week's readings, but it does concern education. "I would not surrender [my children] to the educational systems devised to stunt a child's brain, to convince him that reason is impotent, that existence is an irrational chaos with which he's unable to deal, and thus reduce him to a state of chronic terror" (720). Is this what current engineering education does to its students? If so (in any way or to a certain degree), how can we change it?

Another quote concerns the tension between science and humanities, specifically between physics and philosophy. "They were majoring in two subjects: physics and philosophy. Their choice amazed everybody but me: modern thinkers considered it unnecessary to perceive reality, and modern physicists considered it unnecessary to think" (721). Not only does the Mann Report emphasize the need to include humanities and social sciences in engineering education, but this week's readings address the same need. It is a scary thought to imagine that those with the power to change education may still think (or not think if they're physicists) that thinkers do not need to perceive reality and physicists do not need to think.

The final excerpt refers back to the beginning of the semester when we discussed the philosophy of power. "Every man builds his world in his own image... He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice. If he abdicates his power, he abdicates the status of man, and the grinding chaos of the irrational is what he achieves as his sphere of existence - by his own choice" (725). We often ask the question: who has the power to decide? Well, we all have the power. I think it is how we choose (since we have the power of choice) to use it.

Just some food for thought...

My 'so what' of today

Although it's a short post, I want to share my 'so what' thoughts of the day. I am hoping that others will be able to share their ideas and expand on mine.

So what: Who decides what engineering is and how that affects who becomes an engineer. This also affects who is taught what in order to become an engineer vs. engineering technician vs. scientist vs. home economist/consumer. Shift from shop work to theory based engineering education (brought from France) change who became an engineer. Institutional bias in admissions based on qualified vs. qualifiable also excluded certain people from becoming engineers (i.e. not native born middleclass white males). Paradigm shifts may be caused by some event, for example, war. TENSIONS

Slaton Concrete notes

Slaton Concrete

Write an abstract/summary of this article. What is argument in 1 sentence?
- Historical perspective highlighting boundaries in engineering and engineering judgment (thinking aspect/workforce dynamics/hierarchy/innate characteristics) in the concrete industry from 1900-1930.

What are tensions and boundary work?
- Automated system vs. humanistic approach
- Tension in trying to keep engineers at top level (managers vs. laborer, white vs. blue collar)
- Hierarchical occupational vision
- Engineers purveyors of standards, but only certain people (native born middleclass white male) had the character to outline those standards
- Theory vs. cut-and-try method
- Science vs. engineering
- Gender and ethnicity
- Native born middleclass white male vs. everyone else

What would Alice say MIS is? Why?
- MIS pg. 51 “attach moral/cultural features…technical prowess…social rewards.”

Circles of Knowledge

In response to Rumsfeld's youtube video posted by George, I offer the above diagram. I first learned about this in high school from my sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Berry. She zealously drew this diagram on the board (sans the axes since they change for each person) and, to this day, describes it as mind-blowing. Perhaps instead of Koen’s conjecture that “to be human is to be an engineer” we should take on Bowker’s view and say “to be human is to categorize.”

From toddler to engineering educator

To be quite frank, I have been feeling like a toddler lately. While transforming my views about education into an essay, I felt like a teething toddler learning to talk at the same time. The thoughts were there, but it was a painful process to translate those thoughts into words that others could understand. That pain was similar to the pain a toddler feels as her first tooth grows in. Education was my first tooth; engineering is my second. Ideally, those teeth will work together to chew through the topic of engineering education.

For now, I want to talk about our first dabble in the engineering aspect of the course. One of Jonassen’s themes and one recommendation in “Everyday Problem Solving in Engineering: Lessons for Engineering Educators” really resonated with me. The theme was about communication. I know from personal experience the lack of emphasis engineering programs place on effective communication skills, both oral and written. It also seems to me that without those written skills it becomes increasingly difficult to verbalize one’s ideas. I ran into this problem with the education essay. Rather than communicating with words, I was used to communicating with numbers and symbols. It was much easier to write, and even think, in formulas and diagrams than in full sentences. It made me wonder if this was happening to anyone else – engineering students, faculty, practicing engineers, etc. For those with similar experiences, we must ask ourselves several questions. How critical are these written and oral skills? And how can we, as future engineering educators, make the teething process less painful?


The second aspect of the article I found interesting was about problem-based learning. During the summer I interned at NASA Glenn Research Center, working with a curriculum specialist who was constructing problem-based learning units (PBIU’s) for K-12 students. Throughout the summer we brainstormed ideas about how to create PBIU’s that would fulfill Ohio educational standards in such a way that was active and engaging. One of my many tasks was to create a challenge for NASA’s Human Space Flight Explorer Post, a year-long after school program for high schoolers. The challenge was to be incorporated in the Mars Exploration unit, using Lego Mindstorms (robots). I ended up creating a very open-ended activity in which the two teams of students were only given a mission – to find Martian soil and test for moisture content. They needed to design their own robot, choose which sensors (light, soil moisture, motion, etc.) to use, create and implement a computer program to complete the mission, and finally report their findings in a press conference. Before the end of the summer my mentor wanted to make sure this was feasible, so with help from my sister we tested the activity. This is when I realized the tremendous effort problem-based learning requires from teachers. In order for students to learn what the state says they should learn, the teacher needs to be aware of the possible outcomes to assess what the students actually learned. So here’s my big question: is this feasible?

Well, I feel much better now. After getting my thoughts out in this blog post, my new teeth aren’t hurting so much. Have a great weekend!