Charlottesville, August 23, 2005
By: Charlie Feigenoff
What
exactly is the difference between science and engineering?
Stereotypes maintain the image of scientists in white coats
bustling around sterile labs and engineers with thick glasses
soldering circuit boards together. These images persist
in part because young students rarely learn how scientists
and engineers work.
A new distance education course sponsored by the University
of Virginia helps high school students figure this out.
Professor Dana Elzey believes that the earlier students
learn the difference between science and engineering, the
better. That's why he spent spring semester using the School
of Engineering and Applied Science distance learning technology
to teach "Explorations in Engineering" to high
schoolers in three neighboring counties. Science, in Elzey's
view, is about the act of discovery and interlocks with
engineering, which is about the act of creation. "Your
prime driver is not discovery," he says, "it's
making use of discoveries in creative new ways to solve
problems that mankind faces."
"Explorations" draws some of its structure and
content from the "Introduction to Engineering"
class Elzey has taught to first year engineering students
for several years. Elzey designed the class with three main
components. The first is a survey of the history of engineering
and its social impact from prehistoric times to the present.
Elzey believes it is important to emphasize the dramatic
impact technology has on daily life-especially in terms
of communications, home appliances, and access to health
care and nutritious food. As he explained to his students,
"The average person living in Fluvanna county now has
a higher standard of living than the King of France had
250 years ago."
Another component of the class focuses on the differences
between engineering disciplines and offers students an in-depth
look at what engineers learn in technical schools and universities
and how they apply those skills on a day-to-day basis. By
the end of the class, the "students felt that they
understood engineering better than science," said Elzey.
The final component of the class was a collaborative project
in which students had to design a device to help someone
move heavy objects around the house. This sort of open-ended
directive differs significantly from the single-solution
problems usually found in high school science classes.
That first semester, sixteen 11th and 12th graders from
Fluvanna, Orange, and Louisa enrolled through the School
of Continuing and Professional Education. Students met at
their respective schools for an hour and half twice a week
for Elzey's videoconference lecture. Elzey had the daunting
task of teaching to a monitor in an empty room in Thorton
Hall. "There were not actual students physically in
the classroom," he explains, "which was quite
odd for me."
"It is essential that we contact students when they
are young to educate them about the excitement and vitality
of the engineering field and the strong programs that U.Va.
has to offer," Dean James Aylor says. "We strive
to have the best and most diverse student body available
and the success of this explorations class is encouraging."
