The world needs engineers. For many of us geeks, we have an engineer in our life (or are one ourselves) and have been exposed to the impact engineering has on society and industry in the United States. For many folks in the U.S., especially teens, the glorious and productive field of engineering is not something they have been exposed to, and it’s creating a gap between the jobs available and the amount of qualified engineers looking for them. The problem isn’t lack of interest, the problem is lack of exposure.
Intel Corporation, always on the cutting edge of educational initiatives in the United States, is once again working towards affecting the educational system through direct intervention. They don’t just sit back and conduct surveys, they create programs to involve and engage students and invest tons of money in their efforts. It all starts with a survey, as it always does. The latest survey was to find out how much teens knew about the field of engineering and what would inspire them to pursue it.
One of the most critical points to creating more engineers is nurturing that interest at an earlier stage than college or technical school. It’s important to rakethe brains of high school students across the coals of engineering. While some teens like myself (that is, when I was a teen) happened to be constantly exposed to engineering (my father, the mechanical and electrical engineer) many teens have no idea what the profession offers to society, and more importantly – to them. Teens need reasons to show interest in something, and while the field of engineering isn’t always glamorous, it is essential and it is interesting. Continue Reading “Intel Survey Proves If You Expose Teens to Engineering You Create More Engineers” »
Intel corporation is well known for their forays into educational development and assisting with the ongoing battle between educators, the educated and dwindling school budgets around the world. With their latest campaign, the Intel Teach Program is focused on integrating technology into traditional classroom learning. Intel is not doing this through backing up large trucks full of computers to schools, but rather they are taking a much more personal approach.
Through the Intel Teach professional development program, Intel has gotten hands on with 10 millions teachers to seamlessly work technology into their lesson plans. The goal is to help improve problem solving, critical thinking and collaboration skills within their students little growing brains. So far through the program, over 300 million little brains around the world have been reached, giving them a heads up when it comes to learning, leading and succeeded in the global economy. Whether it all sticks is still up in the air, but it’s a pretty impressive venture. A venture that is costing (part of) $100 million annually, spread among many of Intel’s ventures into improving the quality of education around the world.
“Solving tomorrow’s challenges begins in today’s classrooms,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. “We invest in teachers so that they will inspire our students to be innovative, creative and prepared with the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are imperative to our future. While we celebrate reaching 10 million teachers through Intel Teach today, we continue to focus on developing the next generation by improving the quality of educational opportunities around the world.” Continue Reading “Intel Teach: 10 Million Teachers Influencing 300 Million Students” »
Every year at science fairs across the country there are always a few projects that just stand out. They are done at a caliber far beyond what you’d expect from the middle school and high school sciences. Companies such as Intel with their International Science and Engineering Fair do a great job recognizing the achievements of these junior scientists. But if you are a kid with an hypothesis about the best microbes to decompose plastics, and the research to back it up, there’s a new place to get published and begin a career in scientific research: The Journal of Emerging Investigators.
JEI is a non-profit and open journal operated by some graduate students at Harvard University focusing on biology and physical science. It was created to give aspiring students a way to get published, jump start a career, help students communicate with each other in an open forum and support science education. It’s an incredible way to teach students about the peer review process and receive feedback from PhD students.
The Journal of Emerging Investigators is an open-access journal that publishes original research and review articles that are written by middle school and high school students in the fields of biological and physical science. JEI provides students, under the guidance of a teacher or advisor, the opportunity to submit and gain feedback on original research and to publish their findings in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Because grade-school students often lack access to formal research institutions, we expect that the work submitted by students may come from classroom-based projects, science fair projects, or other forms of mentor-supervised research.
JEI is a non-profit group run and operated by a group of graduate students at Harvard University, therefore JEI also provides the opportunity for graduate students to participate in the editorial, review, and publication process. Our hope is that JEI will serve as an exciting new forum to engage young students in a novel kind of science education that nurtures the development and achievements of young scientists throughout the country.
As the new school year approaches, students and faculty should take note of this incredible new way to make the science curriculum come alive with real-world integration and a fantastic way for students to take their science fair projects to the next level.
Education in the United States and abroad is always a tricky subject. School systems try to stay on top of not only keeping students engaged, but also keeping the right kind of technology in the classroom. This is a constant and never-ending challenge, and changes the way we teach our kids at home and what we expect from schools. Often there are individual contributors that help out schools when needed, and even more often there are students with a strong yearning to learn on their own, which keeps the educational cogs moving in a positive direction. When we give up on the kids, they’ll give up on us and we’re all screwed.
The story of how Maingear came to be is a simple one. It was born from a love of building high performance computers, and a love of gaming. As I sit down with Wallace Santos, the 27 year-old CEO of Maingear, a huge grin comes across his face as he begins to recount for me the tale of how Maingear got its start. I’m sitting at a conference table, across from Wallace at Maingear’s modest facility in Kenliworth, NJ, after Wallace was nice enough to drive into New York City to pick me up during a recent visit.
The story starts in a garage in New Jersey, sometime in the early years of the 2000s. A huge Counterstrike player, Wallace had been building his own gaming computers for a while. He was the true gaming hardware specialist, overclocking his machines, tweaking the machines to bend them to their extreme capabilities and beyond. Of course, his friends took notice — and that’s where it began. Wallace tells me, “my friends started asking me, can you build me a PC, a gaming PC like yours?” So Wallace, sensing a need, started a computer consulting company, in which he’d build computers for his friends. At the age of 18 Wallace headed to Las Vegas to attend the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show (CES.) That was enough to give him the inspiration that he needed, and when he came back, Maingear was officially born. Continue Reading “Shift Into High Gear Gaming With Maingear” »
For the past month, I’ve been testing an Intel-Powered Convertible Classmate PC, featuring an LCD touch-screen. The hardware and software are specifically designed for educational use but Intel wants this to be much more than just another classroom tool.
Recently Intel Corporation, along with Penn Schoen Berland have conducted another study related to science and math that have yielded some interesting results. The study was conducted online between Sept. 24 and 28, 2010 of 1,000 teenagers ages 13 to 18. There is only a slight margin of error, and they tried to align the demographics as closely to the most recent U.S. census data. While this helps validate the data a little bit, the fact that the survey was done solely online misses a huge demographic, which for me, would most likely skew the numbers below.
The first stat of the study is the one in the header. 99% of U.S. teens believe math and science is important. This is all well and good, until you look at the stats beneath it. The most outstanding of these being the mere 10% that think that the U.S. is best when it comes to math and science. So there is a serious lack of confidence in the math and science teaching skills of the U.S., at least in the eyes of 1,000 teens. Unfortunately for those U.S. teens though, they rank 21st out of 30 in science, and 25th out of 30 in math among developed countries. So what the hell is going on – do U.S. teens simply think math and science is important – yet they suck at it? Let’s take a closer look at the findings.
Recently here on the GeekDad blog I wrote about a survey that the Intel Corporation had done that showed that many parents would rather talk to their kids about drugs than about math or science. It raised some interesting points about our interest as parents in the education of our children. It also pointed out some deficiencies we may have already noticed ourselves, such as the generational gap in learning. Frankly, even though the article was popular I was really waiting for a response from an educator to see how far off or near the mark I was. Well, now I have that response.
Enter Rebecca Zook, accomplished teacher, cellist and most importantly – math tutor. For seven years she has been a private math tutor and recently wrote a post in response to my original one highlighting some tips for parents in helping their children with math homework. Rebecca is no slouch, in addition to being a tutor she’s also taught Kaplan SAT prep classes for both the math and verbal sections of the SAT around Boston. While a Junior Writing Fellow at the Boston University Writing Center she coached undergraduates on their academic writing and liked to bake chocolate muffins. While doing yoga. Basically, I’m saying that I’m not writing this response to a response by some hack, she knows what she’s talking about.
When looking at Rebecca’s tips, the most important one is the one that she includes in her conclusion, “you can help your kid.” There is more to that sentence, but that’s all you really need to start with. As a parent, you can help your kid no matter how little or how much you know about math. I run into a lot of people who question the validity and application of math in the real world. How little they know. Almost everything in our daily lives is somehow powered by math. From the cars we drive to work in, to our alarm clocks, well, I don’t have to tell all of you. You know. Math is everywhere and one of the most important skills we need to teach our children if we expect to have a functioning future on this planet.
Better than drugs. Math books. (Image: pentrust.org)
There is a point in every family when it’s time for the talk. No, not that talk. Not that one either. I’m talking about the science-and-math talk. The kind of talk that should happen every time your child is having trouble or even just working on homework. Most parents, having been through primary school themselves at some point, have a difficult time with this talk. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted through the Intel Corporation, parents are more comfortable talking with their kids about drugs than about science and math.
More than half (53 percent) of parents of teenagers admit that they have trouble helping their children with math and science homework.
Nearly a quarter of parents (23 percent) who admit to being less involved in their child’s math and science education than they would like say their own lack of knowledge in these subjects is a key barrier.
Another 26 percent of parents who are less involved than they would like wish there were a one-stop shop with materials to refresh their existing, but unused math and science knowledge so they can better help their kids.
Talking about drugs is easier for parents because it’s a vague subject. It doesn’t have much depth to it. You can get the message across in just a couple of short sentences, or an example of someones’ life gone wrong thanks to the influence of drugs. Not to mention, it’s a talk that almost every competent parent has with their child at some point in their lives, right up there with the good ol’ sex talk.
Science and math are not vague subjects. Not only is there extreme depth to be found, but there is commonly a generational gap between the parent and the child. Science and math haven’t changed, but the amount of knowledge and the understanding has. We know more as adults than when we were children, but we have to relate to them on a child’s level, rather than on an adult-level understanding of the material. This is where it becomes difficult for parents. Shelly Esque, vice president of Intel’s corporate-affairs group, explains the challenge:
Our survey points to a difficult reality for our nation’s parents: While they may recognize the importance of math and science, they are unable to engage with their children around these subjects due to limited understanding of the topics and scarcity of resources to help. We need to help parents help their kids make the best choices, including taking math and science courses so they are prepared to succeed.
Even though 98 percent of parents believe that science and math are critical to the future of the country, and 91 percent believe that parental involvement is key to their children’s success, parents are still having trouble talking to their children about science and math. Sure, it’s easy to express the importance of the subjects, but when it comes down to actually doing something — that is where we’re lacking. Even I have trouble helping with math and science sometimes. Not because I’m not knowledgeable, but because it’s hard to transfer my knowledge to that of an 8-year-old.
The problem is, parents recognize that math and science are critical to their child’s future success, but they also realize that speaking to their children about drugs and alcohol is critical to their child’s survival. Especially when it comes to talking to teenagers, it’s hard enough just saying hello to them, much less trying to connect with them on their schoolwork. So the drug talk is always easier.
What parents need, and — as the survey data mentioned above shows — they know they need. is help. Normally I’d say that it’s all up to the parents, and they should work on the effectiveness without outside intervention.
However, when a company like Intel is willing to step up and put in the time and resources to come up with solutions to assist parents in connecting with their children on math and science, I’ll make an exception. Through its initiatives it’s looking to bridge the gap and create tools that parents can use to better understand what their children are working on and what they can do to help. Shelly Esque again:
Over the past decades, Intel has worked extensively with teachers, students, communities and governments to help inspire and prepare the next generation of innovators with a solid math and science education. We haven’t, though, worked with parents, who we think are a critical piece of the education equation. Our goal in releasing the results of this survey is to raise awareness among parents that they aren’t alone in their challenges so they feel more confident seeking out assistance to encourage their kids to take an interest in math and science, and we hope resource providers will come forward to help them.
Parents, take note. When a company like Intel is stepping in to provide a means to assist you in bridging the educational gap with your children, take full advantage. To that point, if you have the resources to help, feel free to do so. While it’s important that your kids grow up drug-free and healthy, it’s just as important that they grow up educated as well. You can almost guarantee that the less you focus on their education, the more you are going to be focusing on the drug talks.
Intel recently sent a demo unit of their educational line of netbooks, dubbed Classmate PC, for review. I was excited to check out their offering if only to see what One Laptop Per Child’s biggest competitor was up to. While I was initially skeptical, what I found was an ecosystem that focused less on the stand-alone experience and more on the classroom.
At face value, Intel’s Classmate PC looks like a standard netbook. But the internals are ruggedly constructed and resistant to the drops and rough handling kids are known for. Also notable is the nice large external handle for moving the unit around. Spec-wise, the unit sports a 1.6 Ghz Atom processor, 1 GB RAM, a 8.9″ wide screen at 1024 x 600, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and an integrated web cam. Additionally, my demo unit had a traditional 60 GB hard drive, but solid-state drives are optional. Individual units can be purchased online and retail for around $480.
One of the most touted features of the new generation is the tablet mode. The screen swivels and folds down allowing kids to interact with the software with a stylus or their fingers. Intel has been making a lot of noise about their palm rejection technology, which enables students to write naturally with their hand on the display. The only experience I have with tablet PC’s is with my Wacom-based Lenovo X60 Tablet which never suffered from that problem, so likely this is an evolution of traditional resistive-touch displays. Regardless, the feature seemed to work fine as I never experienced issues where my palm caused problems with the tablet recognizing what I was trying to do, and resting my palm on the screen while writing was comfortable and natural. Additionally, the accelerometer rotates the display properly and quickly whenever I changed orientation of the laptop. Continue Reading “First Impressions with Intel’s Latest Classmate PC” »