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Educational Resources in this
website,
for teachers of ENGINEERING (or teachers
of "problem-solving
design" in other contexts)
This page supplements the resources-and-tips you'll find
in the
Sitemap for Whole-Person
Education which says, "You want ideas
that will help you in general [these
ideas are in the sitemap-page]
and also in a specific area you're teaching," as in this page
and
in the analogous resource-pages for other areas.
Although "engineering" isn't in our name (we're the American Scientific Affiliation), science and engineering are closely related, and the community of ASA includes many engineers. In fact, in the early days of ASA our main leader, Alton Everest, was an engineer. The homepage for Whole-Person Education explains that we are "a community of scientists — and engineers, and scholars in fields related to science, such as the history and philosophy of science, and science education — who are Christians."
Basically, engineering is a "design field" and
its goal is to solve problems. To
do this, it combines creativity and critical
thinking to achieve problem
solving by using Design
Method, which is a cousin of Scientific Method. {an
appendix compares science and engineering}
"What is a problem? In the
context of design, a problem is any situation where you have an opportunity
to make a difference, to make things better. Whenever you are thinking
creatively and critically about ways to increase the quality of life (or
avoid a decrease in quality), you are actively involved in problem solving." (from An
Introduction to Design Method which includes a section about similarities
and differences between Design and Science)
Using Engineering to solve Real-World Problems
Stewardship
of Life in a Christian
Worldview takes a broad view
of stewardship: "fully living a Christian
worldview involves a Christian Stewardship of everything in life, including time,
opportunities, relationships, knowledge, money, abilities, resources, environment,..." But
many real-world problems require, as part of a solution, technology that is
designed skillfully and used wisely, so engineering is a necessary part of solving
many problems, as in Conserving
Energy & Using
Alternative Energy and Serving
the Poor by using Science and Technology. Although many problems
cannot be
totally "solved"
we do have "an opportunity to make a difference, to
make
things
better," and this is one way (among many) to "love our neighbors"
as commanded by Jesus.
Also,
Science-and-Religion for Understanding & Personal
Faith may be useful for teachers (and their students) in all areas,
and a SITEMAP will help you explore the website for Whole-Person Education (with resources for Effective Education and Science-Theology Interactions, using a Multiple-Views Approach) and other parts of the ASA Website, plus TIPS FOR TEACHERS.
You're an expert in your areas, so...
if you want to help us improve our website — for
example, if you have suggestions to make it better, or you've discovered
a great web-resource and you tell us about it so we can share it with
others — your assistance will be greatly appreciated. How
can you help?
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Science and Engineering Comparing Cousins: Although it can be interesting to compare science with a wide range of design fields, it seems most immediately useful to compare science with its closest cousin in design, which is engineering. Comparing objectives, we see that science tries to understand nature, while engineering tries to improve technology. Notice the two differences: understanding versus improvement, and nature versus technology. But there are also similarities, interactions, and overlaps. The understanding gained by science is often applied in technology, and science often uses technology, especially for making observations but also in other ways. Sometimes in science or engineering — for example, when we try to understand the chemistry and physics of combustion in automobile engines — we study the behavior of nature in the context of technology. And because the definitions we're using distinguish between science and design on the basis of purpose-and-process (objectives-and-methods), not careers, a scientist sometimes does engineering, and an engineer sometimes does science. |
This website for Whole-Person Education has TWO KINDS OF LINKS: an ITALICIZED LINK keeps you inside a page, moving you to another part of it, a NON-ITALICIZED LINK opens another page. Both keep everything inside this window, so your browser's BACK-button will always take you back to where you were. |
Here
are tips-pages (to supplement plus useful ideas for teachers and students in all
fields, |
This page, written by Craig Rusbult (editor
of education website), is
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/tips/engineering.htm