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Medford/Somerville, Mass. -- Massachusetts' education leaders yesterday adopted a pioneering initiative to bring engineering to classrooms across the state. The program -- the first of its kind in the country -- comes at a crucial time for the United States. "This is historic," Ioannis Miaoulis, Tufts' Dean of Engineering, told the Boston Herald. "Massachusetts will be the first state in the country to do this. We will also be a world leader." Miaoulis, who helped state educators develop the new educational approach, told the Boston Globe, "Everybody is watching us." The state's education board passed the new standards by a 7-0 vote, putting into place the pioneering program, reported Boston's major news networks including Channel 56, Channel 4, WBZ Radio, WBUR and New England Cable News. The new engineering curriculum was designed to make science education more practical and relevant. "Out of tradition, we put so much emphasis on learning the basics of science, like how volcanoes erupt, but put no emphasis on the human world, like how cars work," he told the Associated Press. "Yet people send much more time in cars than they do volcanoes." According to the Herald, "Miaoulis and his colleagues have worked for more than a decade to get schools and policy-makers to embrace the notion that grade-appropriate engineering lessons can be taught to students." Miaoulis -- who chaired the technology/engineering panel for the Massachusetts Department of Education -- said that the new engineering curriculum is uniquely positioned to incorporate other major subjects including: math, English and even history. "There are very few things you can do in school that you can start and finish something you can feel touch and be proud of that pulls together all of your skills. And sometimes, what they come up with can even be useful," he told the AP. With recent reports showing US students lagging behind many countries in math and science skills, the engineering initiative comes at a particularly important time, Miaoulis said. The Boston Globe reported that the developers of the program hope "that including engineering in the new statewide curriculum will produce higher math and science scores and more engineers at a time when they are sorely needed." "The shortage of engineers in the United States has become so severe that American companies have had to begin recruiting employees from oversees," according to the Associated Press. Miaoulis hopes to help develop similar programs around the country to help raise the quality of science education nationwide. He says the new curriculum may also inspire more students to choose engineering as a profession. "We have a tremendous need," he told the AP. "We have a lot of people with high ability who simply do not choose the field because they don't know what it is. It is our job to help them." Posted 12-21-00
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Tufts,
Massachusetts Partner For Nation's First Statewide Engineering
Curriculum 