How to start an engineering education at school. Approaches to Engineering Education in Basic School. What can you really do
STARTING ENGINEERING EDUCATION AT SCHOOL
THE BEGINNING OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS
A.C. Chitanoe, A.C. Grachev
A.S. Chiganov, A.S. Grachev
Technical thinking, engineering, physics, mathematics, computer science, technology, education, research, robotics, project, model, network principle.
The article discusses the relevance of the initial training of engineering personnel at the earliest stage - in basic and high school. The approaches to the development of the technical thinking of schoolchildren are described, which make it possible to create a sustainable interest in engineering among tomorrow's students and graduates of technical universities in the country. Attention is drawn to the need to create pedagogical conditions for the development of engineering skills in secondary school. The role of a pedagogical university in the training of teachers for solving the problems of engineering training of schoolchildren, special training of a teacher who is able to actively develop the technical thinking of students is considered.
Technical thinking, engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, technology, education, research, robotics, project, model, network principle. This article raises the issue about the importance of the basic training of engineers at the earliest stage - in middle and high schools. The work describes the approaches to the development of students "technical thinking allowing to motivate future students and graduates of technology universities of the country. The authors point to the urgency of creating pedagogical conditions for the development of engineering skills in middle school. They also consider the role of colleges of education in teachers "training to solve the problems of students" engineering education and in a special teachers "training to make them able to develop students" technical thinking.
At present, Russia is experiencing an acute shortage of highly trained engineering personnel with developed technical thinking, capable of ensuring the rise of innovative high-tech industries.
The relevance in the training of engineering personnel is discussed both at the regional and federal levels. In support of this, we quote from the speech of the President of Russia V.V. Putin “... Today in the country there is an obvious shortage of engineers and technicians, and first of all workers, corresponding to the current level of development of our society. If recently we talked about the fact that we are in the period of Russia's survival, now we are! we are entering the international arena and must provide competitive products, introduce advanced innovative technologies, nanotechnologies, and this requires appropriate personnel. Unfortunately, we do not have them today ... ”[Putin, 2011].
This paper will describe approaches to the development of technical thinking in schoolchildren, which will create a sustainable interest in engineering among today's schoolchildren - tomorrow's students and graduates of technical universities in the country.
We plan to determine the pedagogical conditions for the development of technical thinking in schoolchildren.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to UC RUSA / 1 for financial and practical support of the project “Educational Center for Natural Sciences named after M.V. Lomonosov ".
In our opinion, it is too late to awaken an interest in technology and invention in a young person who is graduating from high school and preparing to enter a university. It is necessary to create pedagogical conditions for the development of technical thinking in secondary school, and subject to the implementation of certain developmental actions at an earlier age. In our deep conviction, if a teenager is 11-13
for years he does not like to work with a designer on his own, he is not keen on beautiful and effective technical structures, for future engineering training he is most likely already lost.
For the development of technical thinking of a student in grades 8-11, an active position of a teacher of physics, mathematics, computer science or technology is necessary, and this can be called the first pedagogical condition, since the development of engineering abilities and, ultimately, a conscious choice of the direction of professional activities of a boy or girl. At the same time, an active position of a teacher cannot arise by itself, it is necessary to systematically and consciously develop and train a future or an already working teacher, aimed at mastering pedagogical technologies that make it possible to train an engineer. In general, just as theater begins with a coat rack, engineering education should begin with preparing a school teacher for activities in this direction. That is why a pedagogical university is the first step in training a teacher who is able to develop and maintain motivation for the technical creativity of schoolchildren.
We consider it necessary to note that this problem did not appear yesterday. Since the 18th century, the Russian state has had a special concern for the education of the engineering elite, the so-called "Russian system of engineering education."
As V.A. Rubanov, “before the revolution in the United States, an incredibly strong hurricane somehow swept through. Demolished all but one of the bridges in the state. The one that was designed by a Russian engineer. True, the engineer was fired by this time - for ... unreasonably high reliability of the structure - it was economically unprofitable for the company ”[Rubanov, 2012, p. one].
There are significant differences between engineering training before the revolution and the modern state, the researcher writes in his work: “The Russian system was based on several
simple, but extremely important principles. The first is fundamental education as the basis of engineering knowledge. The second is to combine education with engineering training. Third - practical use knowledge and engineering skills in solving urgent problems of society. This shows the difference between education and training, between knowledge and skills. So today we are everywhere and with inspiration trying to teach skills without proper basic education ”[Ibid.].
And one more thing: “... Without fundamental knowledge, a person will have a set of competencies, and not a complex of understandings, ways of thinking and skills - what is called a high engineering culture. Technical innovations need to be mastered "here and now". And education is something else. It seems that Daniil Granin has an exact formula: “Education is what remains when everything you have learned is forgotten” [Ibid, p. 3].
Based on the foregoing, we summarize that a characteristic feature of the training of an engineer lies in a solid natural-scientific, mathematical and ideological foundation of knowledge, the breadth of interdisciplinary system-integrative knowledge about nature, society, thinking, as well as high level general professional and special professional knowledge. This knowledge provides activities in problem situations and allows you to solve the problem of training specialists with increased creative potential. In addition, it is very important for the future engineer to master the techniques of design and research activities.
Design and research activity is characterized by the fact that when developing a project, elements of research are necessarily introduced into the activities of the group. This means that it is necessary to restore a certain law, the order of things, established by nature or society, based on “footprints,” indirect signs, and collected facts [Leontovich, 2003]. Such activity develops observation, attentiveness, analytical skills, which are part of engineering thinking.
The effectiveness of the use of project activities for the development of technical thinking is confirmed by the formation of special personal qualities of schoolchildren participating in the project. These qualities cannot be mastered verbally, they develop only in the process of purposeful activity of students in the course of the project. When performing small local projects, the main task of the working group is to obtain the finished product of their joint activities. At the same time, such important qualities for the future engineer are developing as the ability to work in a team, share responsibility for the decision made, analyze the result obtained and assess the degree of achievement of the set goal. In the course of this team activity, each project participant must learn to subordinate his temperament and character to the interests of the common cause.
Based on the analysis of scientific sources and all of the above, we will determine the basic conditions for the development of technical thinking of schoolchildren, necessary for the implementation of further engineering training:
Fundamental training in physics, mathematics and computer science according to specially developed programs that are logically related to each other and take into account the technological bias of teaching these disciplines;
System-forming and integrating all major disciplines is the subject "Robotics and Ka";
Active use in the educational process of the second half of the day for design, research and practical activities of students;
The emphasis in teaching is not on gifted students, but on students interested in the development of technical thinking (learning depends on the degree of motivation, and not on previous educational success);
Students gather in an "engineering group" only in compulsory classes in physics, mathematics and computer science, while the rest of the time in their regular classes (the teaching group is
young schoolchildren do not stand out structurally into a separate class from its parallel);
The training of the "engineering group" is based on a network principle.
Let us dwell on these conditions in more detail.
The first condition is fundamental training in basic basic disciplines - physics, mathematics, computer science. Without key, fundamental knowledge in physics and mathematics, it is difficult to expect further successful progress in mastering the basics of technical thinking by schoolchildren. At the same time, fundamental training for future physicists and engineers is two big differences. In the development of technical thinking, the main requirement from the subject of physics is a real idea of the phenomena that occur during the technical implementation of a specific project. Sufficient mathematical background allows you to make a preliminary assessment first necessary conditions, and in the future, an accurate calculation of the conditions for the implementation of the future device. Rigorous proof inherent in mathematical disciplines and deep theoretical insight into the essence of a physical phenomenon are not a vital necessity of engineering practice (this can often even harm the adoption of a balanced technical decision).
According to V.G. Gorokhova, “an engineer must be able to do something that cannot be expressed in one word“ knows ”, he must also have a special type of thinking that is different from both the ordinary and the scientific” [Gorokhov, 1987].
The fundamental training of future engineers is achieved through the development of special programs in physics, mathematics and computer science, which are largely integrated with each other. The number of teaching hours has been increased compared to the regular school curriculum (physics - 5 hours instead of 2, mathematics - 7 hours instead of 5, computer science - 3 hours instead of 1). The expansion of programs is largely due to the use of workshops in teaching, focused on solving applied and technical problems, as well as
the same execution of research projects in the afternoon.
The subject of robotics is backbone and integrating for all major subjects of study. The creation of a robot allows one to merge the physical principles of a structure into a single whole, evaluate its implementation, calculate its actions, program it to obtain a certain finished result.
Unlike other similar schools, in which basic and additional education are not linked into a single educational process, our programs for their implementation use the possibilities of additional education in the afternoon. They contain workshops and design and research activities of schoolchildren. In the course of this work, students complete small, complete engineering projects that apply the knowledge gained in all major disciplines. These projects include all the main stages of real engineering activity: invention, design, design and manufacture of a really working model.
Another condition for the construction of engineering education is to focus not on gifted, high-performing schoolchildren, but on students who are interested in engineering, who may have not very high achievements in basic subjects. In our education, we strive to develop the learning abilities and technical thinking of schoolchildren, who have not yet shown themselves, through the exploitation of their high interest in this area of knowledge. Special educational procedures are aimed at this, such as: excursions to museums and enterprises, individual and group tournaments, visits to university laboratories and the organization of classes in them. For this purpose, at the Institute of Mathematics, Physics, Informatics of the KSPU named after V.P. Astafiev, a special laboratory of robotics was created, designed to conduct classes with schoolchildren and students.
At the moment, a significant number of schools have specialized physics and mathematics classes, and one would assume that such classes successfully cope with the preparation of students inclined to engineering activities, but in reality this is not the case. In physics and mathematics classes, specialized subjects are studied in more detail, but that's all, and this in no way allows students to learn more about the profession of an engineer, and even more so to "feel" what it means to be an engineer.
In specialized classes, the same school curriculum is studied, albeit in more depth, which, perhaps, will allow children to better know a particular subject, but in no way helps them to acquire the skills of an engineer.
Engineering education, in addition to studying the school curriculum, should allow students to combine the knowledge they have acquired in all basic subjects into a single whole. This can be achieved by introducing a single technical component into the programs of the main subjects (in their practical and training part).
In addition, the process of re-forming the existing educational structures in order to highlight a specialized class is painful and ambiguous. Often, reluctance to move to another class, to break off existing social and friendly ties is higher than interest in a new cognitive area. Another argument against the creation of dedicated specialized classes in schools is the initial elite nature of their education.
It is interesting, in our opinion, about graduates of physics and mathematics schools E.V. Krylov: “... I worked at Novosibirsk University in the course of mathematical analysis and observed the further fate of graduates of specialized schools. Convinced that they knew everything, they often relaxed in the first year of the university and after a year lost to students who came from ordinary schools ”[Krylov, Krylova, 2010, p. 4].
In the project we are implementing “Educational Center for Natural Sciences named after M.V. Lomonosov (TsL) "for classes in mathematics, physics and computer science, schoolchildren gather in a specially
dedicated laboratories from their permanent classrooms. After completing classes for other subjects, students return to their usual established classes and serve as guides and advocates of the benefits of developing engineering education in the school environment.
In the case of creating a dedicated class, we immediately solve many organizational problems, but at the same time deprive students of the opportunity to develop independence and responsibility, since these competencies can be developed only under certain conditions and these conditions are absent when teaching in a dedicated class.
This project has been developed and implemented by us since 2013. The project team includes employees of the Institute of Mathematics, Physics, Informatics of the KSPU named after V.P. Astafieva, representatives of the administration and the gymnasium teacher 1. Based on the experience of working in 2013-1014, our design team came to a conscious decision about the need to set up an engineering school on a network basis. The need for a network device is dictated by the impossibility of ensuring the full development of technical thinking and engineering education using the resources of any one educational structure. Engineering education, in fact, is multivariate and requires the participation in the educational process of various representatives of different levels of education (school and university), representatives of the manufacturing sector of the economy, and parents.
Networking allows for the joint development of original educational programs. On the basis of the collectives of all project participants, a united team of teachers and representatives of the profession is formed. The equipment and premises of each organization are shared by the network participants, and the project is co-financed.
There are continuing education structures within the school that are ready to be
partners in this education. One of these structures is directly intended for the formation and development of the technical thinking of schoolchildren - this is the Center for Youth Innovative Creativity (YCIT), where unique digital equipment for 30 typing is installed, the other is the Youth Research Institute of the Gymnasium (MIIG), which deals with design and research activities with schoolchildren in the afternoon.
We will designate all equal subjects of the prevailing currently networks and reveal their functions.
Krasnoyarsk University Gymnasium No. 1 "Univers" - provides and controls the workload of students in basic education in the first half of the day and partially in the second.
Institutions of additional education (TsMIT, MIIG) - implement the project workload of students in the afternoon.
Pedagogical University (KSPU) - carries out the development and control of educational programs of the center in terms of the development of technical thinking.
Enterprises (RUSAL, Krasnoyarsk Radio Plant, Russian branch of National Instruments) - provide technological aspects and vocational training on the basis of their training centers and equipment.
Parents - fund additional education services, participate in the organization of outreach events, and influence schoolchildren through individual representatives with engineering professions.
Such a networked arrangement is possible with the work of a united, open team of educators, representatives of the professions and interested parents.
At the same time, each subject of this network can also perform their specific functions in the joint educational process. With regard to the Center for Natural Sciences named after M.V. Lomonosov's current network structure is shown in Fig.
Rice. Center network device diagram
Let us now return to the question of the role of a pedagogical higher educational institution in training personnel for solving the problems of engineering training of schoolchildren. To prepare a teacher who is ready to actively develop the technical thinking of a student, his special and purposeful training is necessary. It so happened that within the framework of the Institute of Mathematics, Physics, Informatics, there are all the necessary professional opportunities for the preparation of such a teacher. Within the institute there are departments of mathematics, physics, computer science and technology. At present, the institute has developed and adopted a two-profile bachelor's program linking physics and technology. The training program for the future technology teacher is now being revised based on the tasks of the engineering school. The program for the mathematical training of students has been changed, courses in descriptive geometry, graphics and drafting have been added. Teaching materials have been significantly changed in terms of trigonometry, elementary functions and vector algebra. The discipline "Robotics" is taught to students of technology. Currently de-
Attempts are being made to change physics training by linking physics workshops to technology applications.
Bibliographic list
1. Gorokhov V.G. Know in order to do. M., 1987.
2. Krylov E.V., Krylov ON. Is premature development harmful to the intellect? // Accreditation in Education. 2010. N 6 (41). September.
3. Leontovich A.V. Basic concepts of the concept of development of research and project activities of students // Research work of schoolchildren. 2003. No. 4. S. 18-24.
4. Putin V.V. Opinions of Russian politicians on the lack of engineering personnel. 04/11/2011 // State News (GOSNEWS.ru). Internet edition [Electronic resource]. URL: http://www.gosnews.ru/ business_and_ authority / news / 643
5. Rubanov V.A. Projects in dreams and in reality, or On the Russian system of training engineers // Nezavisimaya gazeta. 2012.12. No. 25.
In Arkhangelsk, about one of the first experiments in the implementation of robotics in school curriculum, development of thinking and inspiration.
- Denis Gennadievich, tell us how your path in educational robotics began. When did you start interested in her? How did it all start?
- Is there a day that drastically changed my outlook? In principle, there are two such days. On September 1, 2006, I finally started working as a teacher at school. At that moment, our school did not yet have a second computer science room and we had to run around the classrooms and teach computer science to schoolchildren with chalk in hand. When you have been working as an engineer in an IT company for 10 years, the contrast is breathtaking. Therefore, at the first stage, it was necessary to create a normal office. In principle, the computer science office acquired its recognizable shape in the summer of 2008. The second question arose: in the form in which informatics was present in textbooks, this academic discipline did not please me much. In addition, in 2008, fabulously talented children came to the 5th grade. "Giving a textbook" to such children is not self-respect.
It so happened that at that time I received the mayor's award and ended up in the Detsky Mir store, where the Lego MINDSTROMS NXT set was on sale at a discount. The amounts matched. And the next day, the 10th graders were happy to independently study the robotics constructor, and stayed in the office for 6 hours. And then everything began to develop very actively. Now in our gymnasium we have the best base for technical creativity in the field of robotics in the Arkhangelsk region and we have everything: Lego WeDo, MINDSTORMS, VEX, ARDUINO, myDAQ, myRIO, TRIK, etc., etc.
These children from 2008 to 2015 (grades 5-11), with their talent, just an irrepressible desire to learn, practically forced them to work, work, work. Until now, all robotics specialists remember them: how was it possible on December 30 to engage in technical vision on the TRIK platform until 22:30, while studying in the 11th grade? And not because there were some competitions or conferences (there were none). But because it is interesting and it turns out.
- Tell us about yourself, where did you study, what is your professional path?
- By education - a teacher of mathematics, computer science and computer technology. Graduated with honors from the Pomor State Pedagogical University named after M.V. Lomonosov, this is in Arkhangelsk. Further educational institution became part of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov. However, he did not immediately go to work at the school. Served in the Border Troops, was engaged in scientific activities in graduate school (theory of semigroups; but did not defend himself), worked as an engineer, at the same time became interested in the physics of condensed matter, learned to write scientific articles ...
And only after that, having the knowledge, methodology, experience and understanding of what I would do and how, I went to work "by profession."
- Why is technical creativity important? Do future engineers “open up” in robotics lessons?
- Engineers should be trained and trained at the university. And engineers turn out when they themselves, having received an education, implement engineering projects and perform engineering tasks.
Everything the school can do: career guidance, motivation, education and development. I didn’t even use the word “teaching”. Since you cannot teach anyone anything, you can only learn. Therefore, in the gymnasium we are trying to create conditions in which the child will have the opportunity to find his own path, there will be a choice of an educational trajectory that ensures his development and there will be motivation. This year, 67% of 9th grade graduates have chosen computer science as an exam - this is to the question of technical creativity as an effective career guidance.
On the other hand, it is important who hears the answer. Being engaged in technical creativity, it is easier for the teacher to work with children, since the issues of educational motivation no longer bother him. When we first started our path in educational robotics, we conducted research on the educational motivation of schoolchildren. For the sake of this, I even went through training at the “School of Educator-Researcher”, in which candidates of pedagogical sciences explained how to do everything correctly and “according to science” so that the result was real, and not the one you really want. The motivation of schoolchildren is definitely growing.
For parents, information: you sent your child to the sports section (or similar in direction), you sent to the art, but you have not forgotten about the development of intelligence? Tutors don't develop it.
For schoolchildren: engaging in technical creativity, grades in mathematics, physics, computer science, English and Russian languages improve. Are you surprised? Each robotics technician will tell his or her success story. You want to understand that your knowledge is really scattered. Yes, there are grades, but what about knowledge? Come and check. Or are you only learning for the grades? When you solve a problem, the teacher always knows the answer. But in robotics, it's different. We will search together. This is real creativity, this is your independent thinking!
- In Gymnasium No. 24, robotics is included in general education program, This is true? When did it happen? In Russia, this is still a rarity.
- I'll start from afar again. Educational organization, in which he came to work in 2006, had the following name: "Secondary school № 24 with in-depth study of subjects of artistic and aesthetic direction." Music, theater, choreography, visual arts - these are the core subjects. In such an environment, it was very striking that children really lack the technical component in the educational trajectory. Where can I get her? For this reason, all the equipment began to be used as a methodological tool for a computer science teacher. The training programs allowed this. That is, children programmed both robots and microcontrollers in computer science lessons (in 2009 this happened with the Lego MINDSTORMS platform, in 2011 - with the Arduino platform).
Then we started the project "Beginning of Engineering Education in School", within which, in a specially created educational environment based on engineering laboratories, students from grades 5 to 11 study computer science in an inextricable connection with physics, engineering, mathematics. This is how we implement STEM learning (STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, math, i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Later, in the curriculum of the gymnasium, the fifth-graders had robotics, and the older ones had elective academic subjects in technical areas. So, for example, 10-graders of the profile physics and mathematics class have a compulsory elective "Introduction to digital electronics", this course already uses the educational capabilities of the myDAQ platform of the well-known company National Instruments.
It so happened that in 2012 we ceased to be "with in-depth study of subjects of artistic and aesthetic direction" and became a gymnasium.
In 2015, I read out fragments of the approved Model Program of Basic General Education to graduates, in which robotics, microcontrollers, 3D printers became an integral part of informatics in grades 5-9. And everything that a few years ago was some kind of innovation became commonplace.
- Tell us about your textbooks on robotics, because these are also rare textbooks in Russian education, not counting translated ones.
- To be honest, as they say, textbooks materialized “not from a good life”. Just at that time (2010, it was then that I handed over the first manuscript to the publishing house "BINOM. Laboratory of Knowledge") there was nothing, except for one book by Sergei Alexandrovich Filippov. In 2012, the publishing house published a workshop and workbook "The first step to robotics" (then reprinted 2 times). The peculiarity of the manual was that the Lego MINDSTORMS robot could be effectively used when studying various topics, for example, studying the coordinate method (which, by the way, is in the computer science program) and creating prototypes of various devices.
In 2013, National Instruments suggested writing a tutorial on the NI myDAQ platform without restricting creativity and ideas. A year later, the workshop "Introduction to Digital Electronics" appeared, and the wonderful myDAQ platform was an effective tool for this. The tutorial was published on the Intel Education Galaxy (in the form of posts), but unfortunately the site will cease to exist this summer.
In 2015, I was lucky to participate in the preparation of the textbook "Microcontrollers - the basis of digital devices" for the Amperka TETRA educational kit. This is Arduino platform programming in grade 5-7.
In 2016, prepare a textbook “Technology. Robotics ", divided into 4 parts (grades 5, 6, 7 and 8). It can be used as a workshop for new textbooks on technology (authors: Beshenkov S.A., Labutin V.B., Mindzaeva E.V., Ryagin S.N., Shutikova M.I.).
Right now I am writing a book on modeling in OpenSCAD. I don’t know how her fate will develop further, but in my work she is simply vital to me. In computer science, there is such a topic as Algorithm Executors, and among these executors is the Draftsman. In my opinion, it is no different from a 3D printer, and in OpenSCAD, the model is not drawn, but is described by a script in a C-like language. That is, again, programming.
- How are classes held in the 211 classrooms? And outside of the lesson? Why did you abandon the circle model?
For the first time, children encounter technical (engineering) areas in grade 5, again in computer science lessons or in an elective. And then the principle "If you want to live in the office - live!" Is included. Pupils themselves choose when it is convenient for them to come. The result is an educational environment where students in grades 5-11 are simultaneously doing what they like about technical creativity. The older ones help the younger ones, the younger ones “copy” the older ones. It is like a school, not in the sense of an "institution", but as a direction in science and culture.
The mug model ... I'm not going to criticize the mug model. The circle model is about finances and teacher salaries. Not a single methodologist, and not a single examiner will give classes to students in grades 5-11 at the same time, because no one will be able to write a program (which, of course, should take into account age characteristics). And on a voluntary basis, everything is possible. So, I have no circles.
In 2015, we had an amazing graduation of schoolchildren at our gymnasium, who formed our trend "Live in the office!" I had an emotional "explosion" - as a result, the book "Beginnings of Engineering Education in School" appeared with the Intel logo on the cover. If any of the teachers is at a crossroads whether to start his path to educational robotics - look through, and you will make an unambiguous choice.
- You use different equipment, you have as many as 15 directions. Why is this variety needed? Do children interact with everything?
- Firstly, the variety of equipment is very convenient for the teacher, as it allows taking into account the individual characteristics of students and the characteristics of the class as a whole. In addition, we tried to build the entire age range of grades 5-11, and this is already 7 directions at once.
Secondly, in the specialized physics and mathematics classes, we try to provide such areas as research and project activities. There are about 60 people in specialized classes. Everyone will die of boredom if the direction is one, and I will be the first.
It is worth noting that referrals do not arise from equipment. For example, we started the directions related to National Instruments technologies at the gymnasium for the reason that in our Northern (Arctic) federal university 8 research and educational laboratories based on their equipment. That is, in each of the areas you can continue to work after graduating from our gymnasium.
In fact, most likely, we would not have had such a number of directions and equipment without the 2015 graduates. I just did not have time to, as they say, "bring the shells." That release knew and worked with all the equipment: it was unpacked right in front of them, and very often the delivery was right at the lessons. I will give one more example. There was a guy in that class who loved English language(now he is studying to be a linguist), naturally, for him I got a thick book of 700 pages Arduino Cookbook. You have no idea with what thirst he "ate" it (the word read does not sound here), while performing experiments with the Arduino. Three guys came to collect the first 3D printer in the office on Sunday, then they studied the software faster than me (you need to model it) and they helped me. What I prepared for the lessons for a week - they absorbed in 2 days. Well, I had to cook something new, new, new.
- You are holding your own festival - RoboSTEM. Was the first festival in January this year?
- Yes, together with the Arkhangelsk Center for Youth Innovative Creativity. The first one took place this year. We decided that it is important to hold our own (regional) festival. Why now? Our robotics graduates have matured enough: the panel of judges consisted of graduates who were engaged in robotics in our gymnasium and in the 17th lyceum in the city of Severodvinsk (this is another powerful center for the development of educational robotics in our region).
- How it was? How many children participated in it?
- On January 15, in our Arkhangelsk gymnasium No. 24, an open festival on technical creativity in the field of robotics "RoboSTEM" was held, which brought together 132 students from 23 schools in the Arkhangelsk region. The extensive program of the forum made it interesting for participants of all ages. Playgrounds were organized for students where it was possible to work / play with equipment, exhibitions for the guests of the festival. And, of course, everyone could feel like a fan or a participant in a robotics competition.
At the opening of the festival, parting words to the participants were addressed by: Vitaly Sergeevich Fortygin, Deputy Chairman of the Arkhangelsk Regional Assembly of Deputies; Semyon Alekseevich Vuymenkov, Minister economic development Arkhangelsk region; Sergey Nikolaevich Deryabin - Chairman of the Regional Association of Small and Medium Business Development Initiatives, General Director of InterStroy LLC and other distinguished guests of the festival.
Schoolchildren participating in the festival prepared more than 100 robot models assembled on the basis of various platforms: Lego EducationWeDo, Lego MINDSTORMS, Arduino, VEX EDR, TRIK, NI myRIO and others.
The youngest participants are 9 year olds. Among the winners and prize-winners of the festival are representatives of 12 schools, and 42% of them are girls. It is important to maintain gender balance.
On the one hand, the festival allows to support schoolchildren in their hobby for robotics, on the other hand, to attract new participants, popularize this area of innovative creativity, make young northerners feel like real engineers and inventors, educating designers of the future.
I would like to separately thank Lego Education, which supported our festival and established prizes for 5 educational institutions for training the best teams and supporting the best coaches.
- How will the festival change in 2018? Are you planning any changes in the program or nominations?
- Of course, we are planning evolutionary changes. There will be more nominations. There will be more contests. For example, there will be a competition for working with 3D pens. We have already purchased the required amount. The Lego WeDo and WeDo 2.0 Olympiad will be organized, with the help of teachers from the Archangel Center for Technical Creativity, Sports and Children's Development. The 3D modeling competition will already be strictly based on T-FLEXCAD.
- What other educational and competitive projects are you involved in? What are you planning?
- The most unexpected and amazing result of the festival, of course, was the "Future Engineer" Olympiad held in April. Representatives of small business manufacturing companies, having attended the festival, set themselves the task of making a prototype of a grinding machine based on Lego MINDSTORMS, ensuring good repeatability of actions and clearly describing the mathematical model. This is how the Future Engineer Olympiad appeared, which took place on April 26. The winners of the Olympiad “handed over the work” for 4 hours, as they say “on the record” (dictaphone, camera). Schoolchildren's decisions will be embodied in real equipment, in operating machines.
Now, on the territory of our gymnasium, the reconstruction of the old building of the greenhouse is underway, in which, after the completion of the work, the center of technical creativity is located. This project, called "Promshkola", is supervised by its non-profit partnership "Association in the field of shipbuilding, ship repair, mechanical engineering and metalworking" Krasnaya Kuznitsa ", which unites 16 small enterprises.
This year, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Arkhangelsk Region plans to create a regional program for the development of robotics, teachers are also included in the working group.
There is also a "project" that needs to be done, but it does not lend itself to me: a robotics tutorial based on the National Instruments myRIO platform. The deadline is 09/01/2018, since the students under whom all this is being started will be in the 11th grade.
- Tell us about your successes, the successes of schoolchildren, what have you especially remembered recently?
- The most important thing is that we have built a system. Reliable, flexible, renewable.
This year we had an event, the results of which we plan to very carefully and slowly dispose of (and for the first time we will not rush anywhere). This year, for the 5th regional robotics tournament Robonord, which takes place in Severodvinsk (this year on April 23), most of our teams were trained by schoolchildren, that is, I was not the coach, but our experienced robotics. And on April 26 we have the "Future Engineer" Olympiad, of course, I was all in preparation for an important Olympiad. So, our superheroes (coaches) prepared teams better than I ever prepared schoolchildren for competitions (24 prizes out of 33 possible).
At the same time, 5 teams of fifth-graders were prepared by the sixth-grader Polina: she organized everything and everyone through a social network, explained the regulators to them, and never once used this word (she revised and adapted the whole theory), developed a strategy, controlled everything, “fought” with the judges at competitions, citing the provisions. And she was very happy when her five-graders did everything. All five-graders know why they need to do robotics. To become like Polina.
Koposov Denis Gennadievich,MBOU OG No. 24 of the city of Arkhangelsk, teacher of informatics,
[email protected], www.koposov.info
STARTING ENGINEERING EDUCATION AT SCHOOL
BEGINNING OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS
Annotation.
The article presents the experience of organizing and conducting engineering-oriented elective and elective courses in computer science at school. The issues of increasing educational motivation, vocational guidance of students are discussed.
Keywords:
Computer science teaching, elective courses, robotics at school, microelectronics at school, educational laboratories, informatization.
Abstract.
This article describes the experience of organizing and conducting an engineering-oriented elective and optional courses on Informatics in school. Discusses improving learning motivation, mental development and vocational orientation of pupils.
Key words:
Education, K-12, STEM, robotics, microelectronics, school laboratories, informatization.
Today in Russian Federation there is an engineering crisis - a shortage of engineering personnel and a lack of a young generation of engineers, which may become a factor that will slow down the country's economic growth. This is noted by the rectors of the largest technical universities, this issue is regularly raised at the government level. “Today in the country there is an obvious shortage of engineers and technicians, workers and, first of all, workers, corresponding to the current level of development of our society. If recently we said that we are in the period of Russia's survival, now we are entering the international arena and must provide competitive products, introduce advanced innovative technologies, nanotechnologies, and this requires appropriate personnel. Unfortunately, we do not have them today ”(V.V. Putin).
What is usually suggested to change the current situation? In addition to raising the status of the profession and increasing salaries for engineers, all the "variety" of proposals comes down to two directions: to strengthen the selection of applicants and to organize, either at school or at a university, pre-university additional training for graduates:
“We need other, constructive approaches to ensure the flow of well-trained applicants focused on entering technical universities. One of these approaches is the widespread development of Olympiads for schoolchildren ... Another way of forming the contingent of applicants is targeted admission ... We must pay the most serious attention to the polytechnic education of schoolchildren, restore the necessary volumes of technological training for students in secondary schools, which was relatively recently, develop circles and at home children's technical creativity "(Fedorov IB);
“Part of the 10th and 11th grades should be made a“ pre-university course ”. There, in addition to school teachers, university teachers should work. If we thus transfer part of the fundamental disciplines to school, four years of the program at the university will be enough to prepare not an "unfinished" engineer, but a bachelor's degree capable of taking an engineering position. " (Pokholkov Y.P.).
The second approach involves transferring part of the training material to high school- at first glance, a wonderful proposal from above, however, causes the indignation of teachers. Now there is a gap between secondary and higher education, and neither side is in a hurry to meet each other: teacher training courses can only take place in advanced training institutes (other schemes simply do not work). It is necessary to clearly understand what percentage of students in a regular school are ready to listen to lectures by university teachers, and understand how school teachers will look like against the background of university professors and associate professors (and vice versa). This scheme is more or less realizable only in urban lyceums, the capabilities of which, again, will not be enough to meet the needs of both universities and the country in trained applicants. A vicious circle that forms both panic and unwillingness to change anything, or simply to “appoint” someone to blame (“they teach poorly at school” is the most popular belief of higher school workers). “The education system itself began to degrade everywhere. In this regard, the oldest and most powerful educational institution - the family - with its ability to form holistic education and transfer "informal knowledge" is of exceptional importance. Accordingly, engineering training at a university, in a small company, in the form of additional education, acquires a holistic personal character ”(Saprykin D.L.). “In my opinion, there is no need to specifically identify aptitude for the exact sciences. We need to develop circles, electives, elective courses, subject Olympiads - that will be enough. You can add career guidance. For the development of abilities in both the exact and the humanities, it is necessary to work according to the principle: to teach in proportion to the psychological readiness for perception ”(Krylov E.V.).
It was in such a social environment that in 2010 we began to implement a project to create an accessible educational environment that would allow us to bring the study of computer science to a qualitatively new level, within the framework of which we have created engineering laboratories (robotics and microelectronics) in our school since 2012 - a gymnasium) and we use them within the framework of the model of continuous information education.
When we started the development of this direction, it turned out that in the Russian Federation there is no opportunity to rely on someone else's experience, which is usually represented by classes with a small group of enthusiastic students (3-5 people), ie. there is no work and research within the direct educational process, there is no integration and continuity of engineering courses and, of course, there are practically no teaching materials for ordinary general education schools. Therefore, when choosing the main vector for the development of laboratories, we turned to international analytics and forecasts.
In 2009, the New Media Consortium - an international consortium of more than 250 colleges, universities, museums, corporations and other learning-oriented organizations to research and use new media and new technologies predicted widespread use for learning by 2013-2014 smart objects, including the Arduino microcontrollers, an open source platform for designing electronic devices that allow students to control how those devices interact with the physical environment.
It is worth paying special attention to the full name of our school: the municipal budgetary educational institution of the municipal formation "City of Arkhangelsk" "Secondary school №24 with in-depth study of subjects of the artistic and aesthetic direction" (since June 2012 - "General education gymnasium №24"; www. shkola24.su), this is important, since in a non-core school, the effectiveness of educational technologies and student motivation come first.
In 2010, the US National Science Foundation (together with The Computing Research Association and The Computing Community Consortium) published an analytical report detailing which educational technologies will be most effective and in demand until 2030:
User Modeling- monitoring and modeling of professional qualities and educational achievements of students;
Mobile Tool s - turning mobile devices into an educational tool;
Networking Tools- the use of networked educational technologies;
Serious Games- games that develop conceptual competencies;
Intelligent Environments- creation of intelligent educational environments;
Educational Data Mining- educational environments for data mining;
Rich Interfaces- rich interfaces of interaction with the physical world.
The first task that we had to solve was the creation of an educational environment that reflects all the trends and directions of development of these educational technologies - engineering laboratories.
For 2010-2012, without government funding, we created and are used in the educational process engineering laboratories in the following areas:
LEGO robotics (15 training places based on the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT educational constructor);
programming of microcontrollers (15 training places based on microcontrollers ChipKIT UNO32 Prototyping Platform, ChipKIT Basic I / O Shield);
design of digital devices (15 training places based on the Arduino platform and various electronic components);
data collection and measuring systems (15 training places based on the student mobile laboratory complex National Instruments myDAQ and NI LabVIEW software);
sensors and signal processing (15 training sites based on kits of 30 different sensors compatible with Arduino, ChipKIT and NI myDAQ);
mobile robotics (15 educational DIY 2WD robots on the Arduino platform).
The second task is to use the capabilities of laboratories in the educational process, in particular, in teaching computer science and ICT. Currently, this equipment is used in lessons, elective and elective courses, elective subjects in computer science and ICT.
In the above laboratories, in almost every lesson, students are faced with a situation where further technical activities, inventions become impossible without scientific basis... In the classroom, for the first time in their lives, students receive real skills in organizing work; make decisions; carry out simple technical control, build a mathematical description; carry out computer modeling and development of control methods, carry out the development of subsystems and devices; structural elements; analyze information from sensors; trying to build multicomponent systems, debugging, testing, upgrading and reprogramming devices and systems; keep them in working order - all this is the most important foundation for future research, design, organizational, managerial and operational professional activities. This is no longer just vocational guidance, it is the promotion of science with the most modern educational technologies.
At the same time, informatics teachers are the main driving force, therefore, in the system of training (and advanced training) of informatics teachers, it is necessary to take into account the educational capabilities of laboratories in robotics and microelectronics and include relevant disciplines in training programs. On the basis of the school, future teachers are trained - students of the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of NArFU named after M.V. Lomonosov (direction "Physics and mathematics education"), classes are also held for teachers.
After several sessions with teachers of computer science in the Arkhangelsk region, a rather important fact was noted - the teachers were not ready to apply the experience they had seen. The conducted survey revealed the reasons for this.-many teachers are either not interested in the development of engineering, or believe that this area is not their forte. For this reason, we began to regularly conduct expansive consultations, workshops, master classes for teachers, in order to present our experience to the entire pedagogical community, webinars were held on the Intel Education Galaxy (records are available for viewing).
What results have we achieved in 2 years, except for the creation of the educational environment itself? Firstly, it is worth noting that among school graduates in 2011, 60% chose further education at higher educational institutions specifically in engineering specialties (i.e. after graduation they will receive an engineering diploma).
Secondly, we started preparing for publishing teaching aids... In May 2012, the publishing house "BINOM Laboratory of Knowledge" released the educational and methodological kit on computer science and ICT "The first step to robotics": a workshop and workbook on robotics for students in grades 5-6 (author: DG Koposov). The purpose of the workshop is to give schoolchildren a modern understanding of applied science, which is engaged in the development of automated technical systems - robotics. The workshop contains a description of urgent social, scientific and technical problems and problems, solutions to which future generations have yet to find. This allows students to feel like researchers, designers and inventors of technical devices. The manual can be used for both classroom activities and self-study. Training sessions using this workshop contribute to the development of design, engineering and general scientific skills, help to look differently at issues related to the study of natural sciences, information technology and mathematics, and ensure the involvement of students in scientific and technical creativity. The workbook is an integral part of the workshop. Robotics training sessions contribute to the development of design, engineering and general scientific skills, help to look differently at issues related to the study of natural sciences, information technology and mathematics, and ensure the involvement of students in scientific and technical creativity. Working with a notebook allows you to more productively use the time allotted for informatics and ICT, and also gives the child the opportunity to control and comprehend their activities and their results. The workbook helps in the implementation of practical, creative and research work.
Thirdly, the curriculum of additional education for students in grades 9-11 "Fundamentals of microprocessor control systems" was created and tested, the core of which is the modeling of automatic control systems based on microprocessors, as a modern, visual and advanced direction in science and technology, with a simultaneous consideration of the basic , theoretical provisions. This approach presupposes the conscious and creative assimilation of the material, as well as its productive use in development activities.
In the process of theoretical training, students get acquainted with the physical foundations of electronics and microelectronics, the history and prospects for the development of these areas. The program provides for a workshop, consisting of laboratory and practical, research work and applied programming. In the course of special tasks, schoolchildren acquire general labor, special and professional competencies in the use of electronic components in microprocessor-based automated control systems, which are fixed in the process of project development. The content of the program is implemented in conjunction with physics, mathematics, computer science and technology, which corresponds to modern trends in STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). The program is designed for 68 teaching hours and can be adapted to deliver 17 hour or 34 hour elective courses. This program is being implemented for the second year in MBOU OG №24 of the city of Arkhangelsk in optional classes for students in the 9th and 10th grades.
The question should arise: what is the reason for such a number of teaching laboratories? Having created the first laboratory, we, together with a teacher-psychologist, investigated the dynamics of educational motivation of schoolchildren. Methods used: observation, conversations with parents and teachers, scaling, the technique of T.D. Dubovitskaya. The purpose of the methodology is to identify the focus and determine the level of development of internal educational motivation of students when they study specific subjects (in our case, computer science and robotics). The methodology is based on a test questionnaire of 20 judgments and proposed answer options. Processing is carried out in accordance with the key. The technique can be used in work with all categories of students capable of introspection and self-report, starting from about 12 years of age. The results obtained, on the one hand, allow us to confidently speak of an increase in the level of educational motivation in almost every student, on the other, after a year, the level of motivation began to decrease and strive to the level that it was before classes in the robotics laboratory (based on LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT). It is this fact that determines the further quantitative development of educational laboratories. Learning motivation is a major factor in a non-core school that affects student success. We will continue to study changes in learning motivation in the future.
The second question that teachers often ask is: how can microelectronics, robotics and engineering education in general be related to the specifics of our school - in-depth study of subjects of the artistic and aesthetic direction? First, the fact is that the Arduino platform, which most of the labs are based on, was originally developed to train designers and artists (people with little technical experience). Even without programming experience, after just 10 minutes of familiarization, students already begin to understand the code, change it, make observations, and do small research. At the same time, at each lesson, a really working prototype of a device can be created (a lighthouse, traffic light, night light, garland, a prototype of a street lighting system, an electric bell, a door closer, a thermometer, a household noise meter, etc.), and students increase the level of their technological self-efficacy. Secondly, what it means to be an engineer, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa remarkably formulated: “In my opinion, there are few good engineers. A good engineer should have four parts: 25% - be a theoretician; by 25% - an artist (you cannot design a car, you need to draw it - I was taught that way, and I think so too); by 25% - by the experimenter, i.e. explore your car; and 25% must be an inventor. This is how an engineer should be composed. This is very rough, there may be variations. But all these elements must be there. "
Separately, I would like to emphasize that the existing educational programs in computer science allow the use of robotics, microelectronics (and engineering components) as a teacher's methodological tool, without the need to change work program teacher. This is very important, especially when starting such projects in schools, when the fear of the inevitability of a huge number of papers can stop any teacher.
Recently, digital educational resources have been extremely popular. Statistics of downloads from sites fcior. edu. ru and school - collection. edu. ru this confirms. Regional and municipal departments of education run a huge number of competitions and workshops on the use of EDC in schools. During the last 5–6 years, many universities have been effectively using the software environment National Instruments LabVIEW in research and educational work... Virtual laboratories and workshops in natural sciences are being developed and introduced into the educational process. Analyzing the abstracts of candidate and doctoral dissertations in 2009–2011, it is worth noting a large number of works in which software is used NI LabVIEW , including specialty 13.00.02 (theory and methods of teaching and upbringing). This software is installed in our school. Thus, students in the framework of computer science education will be able to get acquainted with how such laboratory complexes are designed and developed.
I would also like to note the developmental function of studying robotics and microelectronics at school. Systematic work with small details in children and adolescents has a positive effect on the development of motor skills of small muscles of the hands, which in turn stimulates the development of the basic functions of the brain, which positively affects attention, observation, memory, imagination, speech and, of course, develops creativity. thinking.
The bottleneck of many studies and projects is often the inability to scale quickly. The experience we have accumulated allowed us to scale up the project in the shortest possible time (30 days) at the general education lyceum No. 17 in the city of Severodvinsk, which underlines the practical significance of our work.
Research by tech companies shows that if we don't have kids interested and passionate about engineering as early as 7–9 grades, the likelihood that they will successfully pursue an engineering career is very low. By promoting science, mathematics, engineering and technology through interdisciplinary elective and elective courses and continuing education systems, informatics teachers can more effectively influence students' career choices. The use of engineering laboratories in schools in the model of continuous information education will allow for effective end-to-end learning (school-additional education- university ) on modern information and communication technologies, ensuring the continuity of the educational program at different levels of education.
Literature
Everything simple is true ... Aphorisms and reflections of P.L. Kapitsa ... / Comp. P.E. Rubinin. - M .: Publishing house of Moscow. physical and technical in-ta, 1994 .-- 152 p.
Dubovitskaya T.D. Methodology for diagnosing the orientation of educational motivation // Psychological Science and Education. - 2002. No. 2. - P.42–45.
Koltsova M.M., Ruzina M.S. The child learns to speak. Finger game training - Yekaterinburg: U-Factoria, - 2006 .-- 224 p.
Koposov D.G. Fundamentals of microprocessor control systems - a program for students in grades 9-11 // Information technologies in education: resources, experience, development trends: collection of articles. mat. International scientific-practical. conf. (November 30 - December 3, 2011). At 2 o'clock, Part 2. / Editorial board. Fedoseeva I.V. and others. - Arkhangelsk: Publishing house of JSC IPPK RO, 2011. - pp. 174–181.
Koposov D.G. The first step into robotics: a workshop for grades 5-6. M: BINOM. Knowledge laboratory. - 2012 .-- 286 p.
Koposov D.G. The first step into robotics: workbook for grades 5-6. M: BINOM. Knowledge laboratory. - 2012 .-- 60 p.
Koposova O.Yu. Monitoring of the level of educational motivation of students in grades 5-7 in the study of robotics // Information technologies in education: resources, experience, development trends: collection of articles. materials of the All-Russian scientific-practical conference (December 7-10, 2010). Part I. / Editorial board. Artyugina T.Yu. and others - Arkhangelsk: Publishing house of JSC IPPK RO, 2010. - pp. 230–233.
E.V. Krylov Premature development - harm to the intellect ?: [interview] / Krylov E.V., Krylov ON. // Accreditation in Education. - 2010. - N 6 (41). September. - P. 90–92
Pokholkov Yu.P. Engineer at five minutes. Political journal. 17.07.2006. P.8
Saprykin D.L. Engineering education in Russia: history, concept and prospects // Higher education in Russia. - 2012. No. 1. - S. 125-137.
Fedorov I.B. Issues of development of engineering education // Alma mater (Bulletin of the Higher School). - 2011. - No. 5. - P. 6–11.
Khromov V.I., Kapustin Yu.I., Kuznetsov V.M. Experience of using the Labview software environment in training courses on science-intensive technologies // Coll. Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference "Educational, Scientific and Engineering Applications in the LabVIEW Environment and National Instruments Technologies". 17-18 November 2006, Moscow, Russia: Publishing house of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, - 2006. - pp. 36–38.
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A little about the background of the issue
Why do our compatriots prefer to drive foreign cars? Why won't you find users of domestic smartphones in your environment? Why Russian watches, which were successfully exported abroad 40 years ago, are far behind the products of the Swiss watch industry today? ...
The answer to all such “why” is simple: over the past decades, the country has significantly lost its engineering and design personnel, without creating fundamental conditions for their replacement. The result is a lag behind competing countries in a variety of industries that require highly skilled designers and engineers. And they are required in all areas where it comes to the development and industrial production of anything - from pieces of furniture to military and space technology.
Nowadays, awareness of the situation has come, and systemic measures have been taken to correct it. It is clear that in this case everything should start with education, because you cannot get a first-class engineer “out of thin air”. The chain of education of the relevant personnel needs to be extended from school through engineering universities to high-tech innovative enterprises.
So in September 2015, under the auspices of the Moscow Department of Education, the project “Engineering class in a Moscow school” was launched, with the main goal of training competent specialists necessary for the city's economy and in demand in the modern labor market (similar projects were launched in the regions). Gymnasium №1519 became one of the project participants.
One year after the start
The 2015/2016 academic year has become very dynamic in terms of promoting the "Engineering class in a Moscow school" project. About a hundred schools in the capital joined the project, opened a total of more than two hundred engineering classes, enrolling about 4.5 thousand students. By the end of the year, more than 130 new schools had announced their desire to participate in the project. 16 federal technical universities are involved in the project, which are support sites for vocational guidance work with students in engineering classes. A pool of project partner enterprises from various industries is being formed. Acquaintance with the work of real high-tech enterprises should serve as an effective "immersion" of students in the engineering field.
In June 2016 in Moscow at the site of the M. N.E. Bauman International Congress “SEE-2016. Science and Engineering Education ”. The Congress was attended by representatives of Russian and foreign universities and scientific and industrial enterprises, potential employers, domestic schools. The congress was focused on increasing the efficiency of engineering education in modern conditions, and the exchange of experience with foreign colleagues made it possible to identify the not yet realized opportunities and weaknesses in the revival of the domestic engineering potential.
"We want ready-made"
As the communication at the Congress showed, some Russian enterprises and universities still proceed from the idea that to educate a professional engineer, it is enough to adapt university programs to the needs of enterprises that need engineering personnel. The result of this approach is the "underreaching" of university graduates to the required level. Domestic experts believe that the horizon for the education of an engineer is approximately seven years, from which it follows that the beginning of this education should be laid already at school... The opening of engineering classes and the active position of universities - participants in the project in building effective interaction with specialized schools and introducing certain forms of engineering training starting from the senior grades - meet this need.
Gymnasium No. 1519 has two engineering classes (10th and 11th) and the so-called “pre-engineering” 9th, whose students are also involved in relevant career guidance activities and receive advanced training in specialized subjects (physics, mathematics, computer science). By the time they graduate, students in this class overwhelmingly choose the profile technical direction in high school. Enrollment in the 10th and 11th engineering classes takes place on the basis of an analysis of the integrated educational results of students in specialized subjects, the results of design and research work and scientific and technical creativity.
Gymnasium No. 1519 has signed cooperation agreements with MIEM NRU HSE and MSTU named after N.E.Bauman. Partnerships with these universities provide students with a wide range of diverse engineering and educational opportunities, including career guidance lectures, special courses, laboratory work, master classes, summer engineering practice at university departments, research and educational centers and laboratories.
And it should be even earlier
It can be stated that the understanding of the need to start educating future engineers already from school covers more and more supporters and becomes practically irreversible. At the same time, comparison with foreign experience shows that abroad, the involvement of schoolchildren in engineering activities occurs much earlier than here - already from the elementary grades.
Russian schools have already begun to adopt this experience. So we become witnesses the trend towards lowering the age barrier of entry into the field of engineering... And for this, good prerequisites are now emerging: students and their parents, seeing the high and informal activity to revive the prestige of the engineering profession, become highly motivated and demonstrate a clear response to this signal. Probably, in a year, the coverage of students with specialized engineering classes will multiply, and the beginning of pre-profile training will shift towards grades 5-8.
Realizing this trend, Gymnasium No. 1519 also plans to introduce elements of pre-profile engineering training in grades 5-8 in the 2016/17 academic year. One of these elements will be a course in three-dimensional computer graphics, aimed at the formation of spatial thinking of schoolchildren. Another element is the circle of intelligent robotics, which contributes to the development of basic skills in using computers and controlled robotic devices, programming skills and solving algorithmic problems.
What can you really do?
An important message shared by the engineering and educational community: until a person begins to do something with his own hands, his engineering knowledge is illusory... That is why almost all participants in the movement to revive the country's engineering potential emphasize the exceptional importance of the design and research activities of schoolchildren and students. Understanding the importance of this factor and relying on the provisions of the second generation FSES, it is necessary to give design and research activities the status of a mandatory component of training schoolchildren... This approach is likely to become a trend in the coming years as well.
It seems, however, that not all methods of organizing the design and research activities of students are equal and effective. In my opinion, there are three levels of organization of such activities:
"Elementary"
We are talking about projects invented at home or at school... The leaders of such projects are the child's parents or the teacher. On the one hand, this makes it possible to single out active children, increase their motivation, and gain minimal research experience. On the other hand, the disadvantages of this method are very significant: behind such work, as a rule, there are no such important organizational resources as the production base and the scientific potential of the leader. Accordingly, such projects, for the most part, have almost no applied value and prospects for serious further development.
"Basic" (currently)
This level involves the implementation of projects at university sites under the guidance of university specialists and researchers... In these conditions, the student performing the project is at the service of both a variety of equipment, and the scientific experience of the leader, which makes it possible to set a truly urgent and promising task, and the possibility of further promoting the completed development, if it deserves it. This level meets modern ideas about the design and research activities of students in engineering classes and is provided for by most cooperation agreements between the universities participating in the project and specialized schools. Basically, it is for this form of design and research activity that there is currently a request from participants (schools, universities, enterprises) involved in the revival of the engineering profession.
"Higher" (guess)
A breakthrough step forward in the development of design and research activities would be the formation of groups of students and schoolchildren involved in the implementation of specific projects at specific enterprises representing knowledge-intensive and innovative industries. Such an approach would give the maximum degree of immersion of future engineers in the profession, would ensure the undoubted practical value of their work, as well as the prospect of introducing the completed developments into practice. The motivation of students in such a model would reach the highest level.
In terms of design and research activities, the No. 1 task of our gymnasium is the maximum coverage of students with this activity at a level not lower than the “basic” level and giving it the status of an obligatory component of the training of schoolchildren. In addition, we intend to make efforts to introduce a “top” level model in the gymnasium.
Can you “sell”?
At the SEE-2016 Congress, an interesting discussion unfolded on the topic: should an engineer be an entrepreneur at the same time to be able to commercialize your ideas and developments, find investors for them, "punch" their way into life? The participants agreed that such a dual role - "engineer-entrepreneur" - is, rather, ideal model, and it cannot be raised to the rank of standard... Although, if an engineer, not to the detriment of his professionalism, in one way or another will master the skills of an entrepreneur, then this can only be welcomed.
A reasonable solution is created in various universities faculties and departments that train specialists in the promotion of engineering developments. And although the emphasis in the Engineering Classes project is not on the commercialization of engineering developments, but on mastering the engineering profession itself, certain career guidance work related to the engineering business would not be superfluous. In any case, it is useful for a student aiming at the profession of an engineer to imagine in advance that a prototype of something created by an engineer, even if it is very promising and in demand, is not the end of the process, but only the start of a whole range of special business events that bring development into a life.
In this regard, the following idea arises: by promoting engineering classes in a broad sense, you can find a useful place in this process for a part of students in socio-economic classes. In any case, the experience of our gymnasium shows that students in these classes are interested in the direction "Engineering business and management". It seems that the involvement of classes in the socio-economic profile in interaction with the relevant faculties and departments of universities not only does not overload the project "Engineering classes", but also reasonably complements it due to what has been said above about the separation of the roles of the engineer and the entrepreneur promoting engineering developments. in life.
IT - nowhere without them!
According to the apt remark of one of the SEE-2016 speakers, modern aircraft, missiles and many other pieces of equipment are, in many ways, IT products... In the sense that a significant part of them are the software and hardware systems that control them. What can we say about "clean" IT-services, completely consisting of the programs themselves and representing a huge field of activity. And then another problem emerges - the lack of not only engineers in the classical sense of the word, but also acute shortage of highly qualified programmers... Another confirmation of this was given at the All-Russian Youth Educational Forum “Territory of Meanings” taking place in June-August, namely, at the third session “Young Scientists and Teachers in IT”, which opened on July 13, 2016.
Thus, this problem also deserves to be dealt with from the very beginning. Turning again to the topic of design and research activities, it is appropriate to “enrich” its content with IT projects and create conditions for schoolchildren to gain programming practice, to participate in real projects of automation of processes at enterprises as part of design teams.
At a meeting on June 30, 2016 on plans for the development of the project "Engineering class in a Moscow school" for 2016/17, the Moscow Department of Education informed that a pool of partner enterprises from the IT industry is already being formed, which will be involved in career guidance work with schoolchildren. We will probably see another trend - an increase in the proportion of students in engineering classes focused on working in the IT field and choosing the appropriate universities and departments for admission.
Conclusion
Understanding, accounting and responding to existing and emerging trends in any segment of education, in particular, within the framework of the project "Engineering class at the Moscow School" is a prerequisite for effective training of students.
The project "Engineering class in a Moscow school" creates conditions for expanding network interaction between educational organizations, organizations of higher professional education and research and production enterprises. The pooling of the resources of the project participants opens up new real paths to the profession of an engineer for schoolchildren.
Why Russian schoolchildren have declining ability to learn
“The general level of geometric and especially stereometric training of graduates is still low. In particular, there are problems not only of a computational nature, but also associated with shortcomings in the development of spatial representations of graduates, as well as with insufficiently formed skills to correctly depict geometric figures, carry out additional constructions, apply the knowledge gained to solve practical problems ... This is due to the traditionally low level preparation for this section and formalism in teaching the beginning of the analysis ... "
From the FIPI report on USE results in mathematics, 2010.
What conclusions suggest themselves from the above quotation? It turns out that when they graduate from school, children learn little of the basic mathematical skills and abilities? It is obvious that an engineer with such a basic level of knowledge cannot be trained. Experts see the reason for the gaps in knowledge of the exact sciences in poor quality textbooks, and in the formalism of teaching, and in the undeveloped logical, analytical thinking of the modern generation of schoolchildren.
Hopefully chatting with Evgeny KRYLOV, Associate Professor of the Institute of Atomic Energy (Obninsk), the author of textbooks on mathematics, programming, unique "computer fairy tales" for children, and Oleg KRYLOV- Associate Professor of the Izhevsk State Agricultural Academy, will help to better understand the essence of this problem.
Evgeny Vasilievich, you worked on a textbook on programming for universities, today you are working on a textbook on mathematics for colleges. Tell us, what criteria are you guided by when creating them? What can you generally say about the methodological support of school and university education?
E.K .: Methodological support of schools and universities is built in different ways. The university methodology is based on the high professionalism of the teacher; strict regulation is contraindicated for it. I believe that it is with this position in mind that the development of the Federal State Educational Standards should be carried out, and they should have a recommendatory status.
As a rule, new educational standards, having entered the university, are carefully discussed at the graduating and general departments, then each lecturer develops his own program - and this is the main point. In the future, the program is again discussed at the departments and methodological councils of the faculties. And only after such many years of running-in, the product is ready. It is extremely important to involve people who see how it fits into the general outline of the curriculum: necessarily - the head of the department, preferably - a reviewer and, of course, a teacher, and of high qualifications.
It's harder at school. When preparing methodological support, one should rely on an “average” teacher, and templates and blanks should be made for him. However, it is necessary to establish feedback to collect the opinions of teachers. Methodological services do not do this, since they turned out to be helpless in many ways. They should express the opinion of the professional community, that is, play the role of “negative” feedback, and not support and justify the ministerial strategy.
A very important issue is the content of the curriculum, which is now below any criticism. When writing a programming textbook, relying on the many years of experience of previous generations of authors, the main criterion for me was the development of the required specialist. But I had to take into account the existing curriculum, the existing realities of the production of software products, etc.
OK.: Let me express my opinion too. What is happening with school textbooks today is a disaster. For example, textbooks of one author, one publisher of two consecutive years of publication cannot be used in the educational process only because of the discrepancy in the numbering of problems, paragraphs, sections and topics.
A good school textbook has been formed for more than one year. Moreover, for a specific program and in the context of the content of those disciplines that a future student will have to study at a university. Example: all descriptive geometry at the university is based on theorems proven in school stereometry as postulates. It is clear that the quality of the school textbook and, accordingly, the quality of teaching geometry at school directly affects the student's understanding of lectures on descriptive geometry at the university. In reality, most first-year students either did not hear about the theorems of stereometry or did not understand them. As a result, descriptive geometry tasks are solved only according to the model from the methodological manual, without their theoretical understanding. And where does this understanding come from, if the necessary foundation was not laid in mathematics lessons at school?
- What can you say about the textbook examination procedure?
E.K .: The examination of the textbook for the university is organized competently. In my opinion, there is no need to change it, but you can improve it. In my experience, every step, especially working with reviewers, led to improvement.
In general, I observe that the textbook becomes good after the second or third reprints. The best in geometry - A.P. Kiselev worked for a hundred years, but now, unfortunately, it has been replaced by significantly inferior quality. Why? Yes, because the relevant ministry has recommended changing them every five years.
When preparing a textbook, it is very important to observe the subject rigor and to ensure the assimilation of the material at a given age level. Therefore, in addition to knowledge of the subject, the author needs recommendations from teachers working with a certain age, or personal experience.
I was surprised, frankly, that a rigid textbook plan was issued from the publishing house. It turns out that nothing depends on the author at all? I think this state of affairs is unreasonable - it affects the quality sharply negatively.
It is also unreasonable, in my opinion, to impose the composition of the textbook. I believe that no genius will be able to present elementary mathematics and the elements of mathematical analysis well in one book. Nevertheless, I was offered to squeeze both geometry and problem books into one book.
I haven’t come across an examination of a school textbook yet, but, according to my colleagues, it is poorly organized. Reviewers are more often engaged in defending their own publishing firms, and one should not expect objectivity from them.
According to the research of the GUHSE analysts V. Gimpelson and R. Kapelyushnikov, two-thirds of the students of Russian technical universities simply cannot become engineers - due to the allegedly "acquired knowledge." The researchers see the problem mainly in the low quality of the basic - school education, with which applicants come to technical universities ...
E.K .: By my subjective assessments, last year half of the students in the Cybernetics Department were not able to study at all, let alone the willingness to become an engineer. It is possible, perhaps, to name the necessary criteria for learning ability, but it is difficult to name sufficient ...
The low quality of school education is one of the reasons for the low ability to study at the university, but far from the only one. The collapse of education begins in kindergarten or even earlier in the family. What I mean? Education for society is a means of protection from threats, and for individuals - from fierce competition. But modern society has a false sense of security. And parents increasingly wish their children comfort, not realizing that education requires serious work. Thus, high-quality, serious education is not in demand either at the level of society or at the level of the individual.
- What, in our opinion, does the school need to identify and develop students' abilities for the exact sciences?
E.K .: In my opinion, there is no need to specifically identify aptitude for the exact sciences. We need to develop circles, electives, elective courses, subject Olympiads - that will be enough. You can add career guidance. For the development of abilities in both the exact and the humanities, it is necessary to work according to the principle: to teach as the psychological readiness for perception.
- The logical, cognitive thinking of the younger generation is getting worse. What is the reason for this, in your opinion?
E.K .: Deterioration of logical thinking exists and is due to a number of objective and subjective reasons. After giving programming lectures for many years, I see a decline in the ability to think algorithmic. This has become especially noticeable in recent years. Today our society does not feel the need for intelligence, although, for example, in Japan, Finland, there is such a need.
The first reason is the level of development of technical means: TV, computer technology. Let's say the computer "shuts down" fine motor skills child, which is a powerful development tool, especially in early childhood.
Another reason is the failure of school education and, first of all, the idea of the early development of logical abilities. Everything must be done on time: premature development causes irreparable harm to the intellect! In kindergarten, you need to take care of the development of motor skills and imagination. Further, in primary school, the time comes for the development of figurative thinking. Logical thinking is a later quality, and it must be carefully prepared, developing, first of all, the imagination, as well as the discipline of thinking. This should be around eighth grade. It was then that the time for mathematics, physics, computer science came.
In addition, methodically incorrect teaching of classical subjects has a negative impact on the development of thinking.
Let's take math. One of the most difficult questions for a student: what is the length of a pencil? Another example: half of the good students will answer the question of what the sine of sixty degrees is. And why - no more than three will explain. The thing is that conceptual explanation, discussions, conclusions are thrown out of the school course. School mathematics is overflowing with unnecessary things, and there is no time to develop the necessary skills. I can give similar examples from the school physics course. The Russian language is also a necessary means of development. At school, you need to teach children to speak and write, but not waste time on lexical analysis.
OK.: The decrease in the incentive to learn, unfortunately, is the result of the ideology of the "consumer society". The physical activity of children has significantly decreased. The computer replaces communication with peers.
How do you feel about the idea of the chairman of the supervisory board of the Russian Chess Federation, Arkady Dvorkovich, to instill a minimum chess knowledge in all children? To what extent are chess lessons in school able to help develop students' abilities?
E.K .: Chess is interesting and useful for those who are interested in it. They develop specific abilities, just like a computer, by the way. Chess is suitable at the initial stage of the development of thinking. But if we are already talking about the professional level of education, then we have to choose between chess and mathematics.
Undoubtedly, the school needs chess clubs and tournaments, but turning chess lessons into a compulsory course, we will conduct another campaign, and we will get the effect of rejection.
OK.: Chess lessons, even at the amateur level, develop logic and logical memory. Mastering chess, in fact, begins with that very imaginative thinking, the lack of which is said a lot in education. And only much later, with the accumulation of playing and tournament experience, does the logical chess thinking itself turn on.
As a rule, schoolchildren who have been studying chess systematically for at least two or three years do better in school and have higher grades, primarily in mathematics.
In addition, a game lost or won in a tournament is the result of personal efforts and direct education of the child's responsibility for his actions. And not only during the game, but also in preparation for it. There is no need to talk about the education of psychological stability in a stressful (tournament) situation.
In some schools, computer science as a way of developing logic is introduced from the first grade, in others - they begin to study computer science much later, often on an optional basis. In your opinion, at what age are such classes justified, necessary? Are they needed by explicit "humanities" and to what extent?
E.K .: Early computer science is harmful, since logical development still does not occur. There is only a habit of verbiage and the rejection of "unnecessary" knowledge. The result is a radical change in the perception of information.
Again, serious studies should be no earlier than the eighth grade. The composition of the course should depend on its objectives. Some of the students will need the Office program (for example, humanities), someone needs a complex graphic editor (future designer), the future “techie” - a course in algorithms and programming elements in Pascal (not in BASIC). The course should be built on a modular basis - with a choice and, mainly, on an optional basis. In the lower grades, simple graphic tools and the simplest languages, such as LOGO with a "turtle", are acceptable.
- What basic principles should be used as the basis for organizing physics and mathematics schools at universities?
E.K .: I worked at Novosibirsk University on the course of mathematical analysis and observed the further fate of graduates of specialized schools. Convinced that they knew everything, they often relaxed in the first year of the university and after a year lost to students who came from ordinary schools.
Highly qualified teachers should work in "high school" schools and they should be given the freedom to choose what and how to teach. It is imperative to observe the principle: do not strive for premature development, but engage in deepening knowledge, developing abilities. For example, a deep study of mathematical analysis is not needed, but the theory of comparisons, combinatorics will be very useful.
- What can you say about two-level education for engineers?
E.K .: There is nothing wrong with two-level training, but it is not suitable for training in hazardous and technically complex industries. An informatics engineer can be trained in any way, since such an engineer, in the everyday sense, exploits ready-made systems. And here is a nuclear reactor operator, an aviation engineer and other similar specialists. it is necessary to cook traditionally.
OK.: As for bachelors and masters - "dropouts" are dangerous everywhere. How can a half-trained engineer work with several dozen machine operators? Moreover, a modern combine harvester is more similar in terms of its equipment level not even to a computer, but to a spaceship.
Alas, meeting new educational standards and training plans leads to only one thought: at first, teachers in special disciplines will disappear, since special disciplines have been reduced (and in some cases excluded) from the training programs for future engineers. The Soviet mechanical technician, a graduate of a technical school, was much more prepared - above all, in a practical sense. A bachelor will have neither sufficient theoretical training, nor the minimum necessary practical training.
