NCTL Curriculum Chosen for Obama's "Educate to Innovate" Campaign
January 13, 2011
The Engineering is Elementary® curriculum is one of seven programs chosen recently by the non-profit Change the Equation organization as part of President Obama's "Educate to Innovate" campaign to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.
Within a year, Change the Equation will begin to introduce a small number of successful privately-funded programs in 100 high-need schools and communities. This CEO-led effort is in response to the President's 2009 call to action for all Americans to join in elevating STEM education as a national priority to meet the economic challenges of this century.
The Engineering is Elementary (EiE) program created by the National Center of Technological Literacy® (NCTL®) at the Museum of Science, Boston integrates lessons in engineering with science, language arts, social studies, and math. The program makes engineering engaging by introducing children in grades 1 - 5 via storybooks to children from different cultures and backgrounds who face engineering problems. Students use their imagination, problem-solving, teamwork, and reading skills to create solutions to real problems via hands-on design activities. The curriculum's 20 units cover subjects from the design of water filters and bridges to how to clean up an oil spill. EiE has reached more than 1.7 million students and 21,600 teachers nationwide.
Kris Exline, a fifth-grade teacher at North Carolina's Rachel Freeman School of Engineering, says students "have gained a greater ability to problem-solve, think deeply with critical questioning, and have learned not to give up on difficult problems." Fellow teacher Andrea Raines adds, "Students who typically are not successful in the classroom setting have learned that they can be successful."
Change the Equation was founded by astronaut Sally Ride, former Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, and Eastman Kodak CEO Antonio Perez, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.