Connected to a laptop I can’t afford, on the far end of a tangle of cords, is an exposed circuit board peppered with objects I can name — resistors, diodes — but not explain. The computer itself is running software that I’m not capable of programming myself. But none of that matters, and, in fact, is part of an educational plan from National Instruments’ Academic Program. They want to help students of all types and levels of intellect “do engineering.” That difference — to learn on miniature versions of real-world problems instead of slogging through problem sets in an overpriced textbook — could be enough to better prepare America’s students for the high-tech work that’s inevitably to come.
Dave Wilson, Director of National Instruments’ Academic Program, has been chasing this dream of helping student engineers and scientists “do engineering” for years, and he’s confident that time has finally come. The company has recently announced the availability of its miniSystems, which are educational tools built onto a small, affordable circuit board.
National Instruments has collaborated with a number of various electronics design companies, such as Elenco and Pitsco Eudcation, to built single-board experiments in operating an electrical grid, analyzing the earthquake resistance of a structure, or the power output of an RC car via dynamometer — to name a few. These boards hook into the NI miDAQ low-cost data acquisition device for students, which then distributes data to the company’s LabView software. Tutorials and example projects are included, so students over a wide range can get things moving straightaway. Almost all are less than $99, which helps reduce costs for educators.
The concept of “doing” education, instead of just passively learning it, isn’t exactly new — nearly everyone did chemistry experiments and dissections at some point in their secondary school years. But bringing that level of experimentation to engineering is relatively new, and could lead to even further advancements down the line. It’s an exciting time in the learning industry.
The Educational Problem
Wilson argues students are not being shown the ways that engineering theory applies to real-world applications fast enough. The longer the wait, the more that get burned out, and that’s never good, particularly when there’s a massive labor shortage for those who can handle high-tech manufacturing processes. He says that the problem isn’t with the teachers, but rather the tools that we are currently using to turn students into professionals.
“I think the profession of teaching is an incredibly important one, and by and large, I think our teachers do a great job. If there’s any hindrance, I think it’s because of the effort we have to make to bring the tools to them that are readily accessible and ‘ready-to-learn.’ Our whole ‘do engineering’ message is about giving those tools, in the best possible way, to educators, who are asked to do tremendous work on a shoestring budget and with no time,” he says.
Right now, educators often have to come up with their own curriculum, which can take an extraordinary amount of time. That is an unfair burden on their time and bandwidth, which would be better spent on the students themselves. With the miniSystems, Wilson imagines teachers and professors being able to buy a few experiments, plug it in, turn on the software, and be ready to go. He says, “The focus turns away from burdening the educator, and it turns to the discussion with students about what physical phenomenon is taking place.”
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