Problem-Solving Engineers' Fix for Education

Engineers at Tufts wondered how teachers trained in liberal arts could teach students critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

They suggested teachers find books, where protagonists face conflict. (It was as though they didn't know, in every good book, protagonists face conflicts. But no matter, let's go on.)

The teacher would then read the book, or assign certain pages for homework, up to a spot where the protagonist has sufficient details about the pending conflict to give students the information they need to come up with various conflict resolutions.

For younger grades, the Tufts engineers used the example of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. How can Peter keep his younger brother, Fudge, away from his turtle, when his mother won't let him close his bedroom door? The engineers figured Peter could rig up a pulley system to hoist his turtle into the air, whenever Fudge entered his room.

Students can engage in a problem-solving class discussion or break into groups to propose solutions and then report their ideas to the class. The class even could vote to choose the best solution.

Doesn't this sound like more fun than memorizing and passing tests?

Career Choices for an Automated Future

At the end of the day, have any of us thought about the immutable function of nature, i.e. light waves, used to measure distance or why democratic governments recognize their obligation to protect the civil liberties, the rights of their citizens, but Communist governments don't.

     Robots with artificial intelligence might as well take our jobs, if we lack the humility to recognize we don't have all the answers and have no curiosity, no love of learning, no desire to read a book, and no willingness to risk the failure of trying something new.

     Five  thinkers present alternative approaches to future employment.

Personal Touch

Being able to relate, person to person, on an emotional level could be the winning skill for some future careers in fields such as medicine, police work, and religion. What needs are people satisfying, when they check their smartphones, a mirror, or the mole on their arm over and over every day? Are they concerned about social issues outside themselves, life changing measures that offer hope and motivation, reduced anxiety, or a functional benefit that provides more money?

     How much does a patient want to know about her or his condition? the risks of treatment options? how long it will be before treatment provides a better quality of life? Some 81-year-olds will arrive at a doctor's office having done extensive internet research about their ailments and ready to take any risks for the possibility of improving their lives, even if costly pills, twice weekly therapy sessions, and monthly doctor's visits will continue for the rest of their lives. Some won't.

     Eric Mack, who wrote an article for inc.com, suggests students have opportunities in careers that enable them to do what robots can't: deliver personalized service, diagnose and solve non-routine problems, and enter into a collaborative give and take with others. At Big Think (Nov. 13, 2016), Micho Kaku said robots can't match the creativity and imagination needed by gardeners, scientists, and those who write rock and toll tunes. Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify try to pick the books, movies/TV shows, and music you'd choose for yourself and Facebook thinks it can select only the news and ads you want to see, but maybe you or a person who knows you personally can provide even better suggestions.

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 Cottage Industries

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba, China's family of Amazon-like e-commerce businesses, expects small companies to use the internet to find customers and sell their products throughout the world. He suggests schools need to prepare students to analyze customer data. To operate on the world stage, he fails to mention a small business owner also needs to understand foreign currencies, laws, and languages. New importers and exporters could benefit from an organization similar to the Food Enterprise & Economic Development (FEED) Kitchen in Madison, Wisconsin. This nonprofit incubator for would-be entrepreneurs in the food industry helps obtain necessary permits; provides kitchen, refrigerator, freezer, dry storage, and dish washing space; and serves as a drop-off point for deliveries.

     Microsoft's co-founder, Bill Gates, echoes Ma's emphasis on the need for educational systems to prepare students to base conclusions on statistical analysis. Where Ma's focus is on consumer data, Gates' is on data related to the spread of disease. He stresses the importance of science, engineering, and economics and equipping students to understand what those in these fields can and cannot do.

     Think about the book and movie, The Big Short, which entertained and explained the financial concepts of the 2008 housing crash. How can entrepreneurs and small businesses in the arts earn a living on the world stage?

Leader/Servant

David Eli Lilienthal, the director and chairman of the government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority that brought electric power to a region not served by private corporations, made a fortune by taking chances in private business after he left the public sector. In the journals, actually loose-leaf notebooks, he began writing when he was a high school student, we learn he found the business life full of creative original minds, but he also found solving management problems was not enough. He missed the gratification of public service until he found a way to combine it with private enterprise in the big, new company he started. He found he could make a profit by helping foreign countries develop their resources for the benefit of their citizens.

In Conclusion

There you have it, advice to offer personal service, start a small business, or found/work for a major corporation that makes big profits from projects that improve the world. Your choice. As Ma believes, "machines will never get the wisdom and experience that comes from being human."

Make Spatial Relationships

When estimating the number of casualties planes flying into the World Trade Center's towers would cause, Osama bin Laden believed burning jet fuel only would weaken the steel above the plane crashes. According to Lawrence Wright's book, The Looming Tower, bin Laden thought higher floors would collapse, but lower ones would remain standing.

    Spatial relationships are important for architects and engineers who design buildings and cars and for dentists who need to know how upper and lower teeth should fit together, but being able to make accurate calculations about spatial relationships is a skill needed by people everywhere in the world. Check how the skill is used in the following examples:

• Knowing where to sit at a sporting event or play so the view isn't obstructed by a pole,
• Figuring how many cars can be parked in a lot,
• Assembling furniture by looking at instructions,
• Visualizing how atoms are arranged in a molecule,
• Deciding how many pans are needed to bake five dozen cookies for a bake sale.

Recent studies suggest ways to help children develop spatial visualization skills. Engineering professor Sheryl A. Sorby recommends playing with blocks, using two-dimension instructions to build with LEGOs, holding objects and sketching them when turned in different positions. She also suggests introducing girls to the toys sold by Goldie Blox (goldieblox.com). Other teachers have had students draw maps, design 3-D treehouses, build robots, knit, play chess, and use 3-D modeling software SketchUp. Theater classes are a natural place to learn blocking, i.e. positioning and spacing actors so that everyone in the audience can see what is happening on stage. Art classes model with clay and learn techniques to create the illusion of space on a two-dimension surface. 

     The connection that seems to exist among spatial reasoning, math skills, creativity, and the arts is reason enough to get kids up and doing things all around the world.