As an engineer I want to share insight with young people so that they can experience the rewards that being able to make things work can bring. STEM programs, science, technology, engineering and math, prepares people to solve the increasingly inter-connected problems the world faces now, and in the future.
Engineers use ingenuity to make things work, it’s where the word comes from. Many people think that you are either smart or you are not, but smart is what you do, not who you are. Ingenuity is a skill, which means that it can be learned, and it gets better with practice. And groups of people can achieve much more than individuals.
Engineering as a skill has at its core a feedback loop, that is what the 4-Rs are about, but fewer syllables might be easier to understand for young people. 4-R-STEM Uses Professor Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act mantra for the feedback loop. It will prepare aspiring engineers for more complex projects with larger teams. Read the 4-R-STEM Manifesto.
Blog Posts describe the PDCA process and examples of its application to STEM projects I am working on.
The PDCA skills
- What is PDCA
- Breaking things down
- PLANning
- Brainstorming
- Communicating ideas
- DOing
- CHECKing
- ACTing
- Analyzing
Projects
- FlyEarth
- LegoBot