Concept of engineering education at school. Engineering classes: potential, prospects, trends
A little background on the issue
Why do our compatriots prefer to drive foreign cars? Why don’t you find users of domestic smartphones in your environment? Why are Russian wristwatches, which were successfully exported abroad 40 years ago, today far behind the products of the Swiss watch industry?...
The answer to all such “whys” is simple: over the past decades, the country has significantly lost its engineering and design personnel, without creating fundamental conditions for their replenishment. The result is a lag behind competing countries in many industries that require highly professional designers and engineers. And they are required in all areas where we are talking about the development and industrial production of anything - from furniture to military and space technology.
Nowadays, awareness of the situation has come, and systemic measures have begun to be taken to correct it. It is clear that in this case everything must begin with education, because you cannot get a first-class engineer out of thin air. The chain of training relevant personnel needs to be extended from school through engineering universities to high-tech innovative enterprises.
Thus, in September 2015, under the auspices of the Moscow Department of Education, the “Engineering Class in a Moscow School” project was launched, with the main goal of training competent specialists needed by the city’s economy and in demand in the modern labor market (similar projects were launched in the regions). One of the participants in the project was Gymnasium No. 1519.
A year after the start
The 2015/2016 academic year became very dynamic in terms of promoting the “Engineering Class in a Moscow School” project. About a hundred schools in the capital joined the project, opening a total of more than two hundred engineering classes, covering about 4.5 thousand students. By the end of the year, more than 130 new schools had expressed their interest in participating in the project. 16 federal technical universities are participating in the implementation of the project, which are supporting platforms for career guidance work with students in engineering classes. A pool of project partner enterprises from various industries is being formed. Familiarity with the work of real high-tech enterprises should serve to effectively “immerse” students in the engineering field.
In June 2016 in Moscow at the site of MSTU. N.E. Bauman International Congress “SEE-2016. Science and Engineering Education.” Representatives of Russian and foreign universities and scientific and industrial enterprises, potential employers, and domestic schools took part in the Congress. The Congress was focused on improving the efficiency of engineering education in modern conditions, and the exchange of experience with foreign colleagues made it possible to identify as yet unrealized opportunities and weaknesses in the revival of domestic engineering potential.
“We want something cooked”
As communication at the Congress showed, some Russian enterprises and universities still proceed from the idea that in order to educate a professional engineer, it is enough to adapt university programs to the needs of enterprises in need of engineering personnel. The result of this approach is that university graduates are “undereducated” to the required level. Domestic experts believe that the educational horizon for an engineer is approximately seven years, which means that This education should begin at school. The opening of engineering classes and the active position of universities participating in the project in building effective interaction with specialized schools and introducing certain forms of engineering training starting from high school 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 a technical major in high school. Enrollment in the 10th and 11th engineering classes is based on 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 entered into cooperation agreements with MIEM NRU HSE and MSTU. 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 begin educating future engineers from school is gaining more and more supporters and is becoming almost 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. Thus we become witnesses trend towards lowering the age barrier to entry into the field of engineering. And there are good prerequisites for this at the moment: students and their parents, seeing 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 enrollment of students in specialized engineering classes will increase manifold, and the beginning of pre-professional 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 developing spatial thinking in schoolchildren. Another element is the intelligent robotics club, which promotes 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 thesis shared by the engineering and educational communities: Until a person starts doing 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 design and research activities of schoolchildren and students. Understanding the importance of this factor and relying on the provisions of the second generation Federal State Educational Standard, it is necessary give design and research activity the status of a mandatory component of training schoolchildren. It is likely that this approach will also become a trend in the coming years.
It seems, however, that not all ways of organizing students’ design and research activities are equivalent and effective. In my opinion, three levels of organization of such activities can be distinguished:
"Elementary"
We are talking about projects invented at home or school. The leaders of such projects are the child’s parents or teacher.
On the one hand, this allows us to highlight active children, increase their motivation, and gain minimal research experience. On the other hand, the disadvantages of this method are very significant: such work, as a rule, does not support such important organizational resources as the production base and the scientific potential of the manager. Accordingly, such projects, for the most part, have almost no practical significance and no prospects for serious further development.
“Basic” (currently) This level involves the implementation of projects on university sites under the guidance of university specialists and researchers
. In these conditions, the student carrying out the project has at his disposal a variety of equipment, the scientific experience of the supervisor, which allows him to set a truly relevant and promising task, and the opportunity to further promote the completed development, if it deserves it. This level corresponds to modern ideas about the design and research activities of students in engineering classes and is provided for by most cooperation agreements between universities participating in the project and specialized schools. Basically, it is precisely this form of design and research activity that currently exists in demand from participants (schools, universities, enterprises) involved in the revival of the engineering profession.
“Higher” (assumption) A breakthrough step forward in the development of design and research activities would be formation of groups consisting of students and schoolchildren participating in the implementation of specific projects at specific enterprises
, representing knowledge-intensive and innovative industries. Such an approach would provide the maximum degree of immersion of future engineers in the profession, would provide undoubted applied significance to their work, as well as the prospect of introducing the completed developments into practice.
Student motivation in such a model would reach the highest level.
In terms of design and research activities, task No. 1 of our gymnasium is to maximize the coverage of students with this activity at a level not lower than “basic” and give it the status of a mandatory component of schoolchildren’s training. In addition, we intend to make efforts to introduce a “higher” level model into grammar schools. 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? Participants agreed that this dual role of “engineer-entrepreneur” is more an ideal model, and it cannot be elevated to the rank of standard. Although, if an engineer, without compromising his professionalism, in one way or another masters the skills of an entrepreneur, then this can only be welcomed.
A reasonable solution is those 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, some career guidance work related to the engineering business would not be superfluous. In any case, it is useful for a schoolchild aimed at becoming 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 complex of special business events that bring development into life.
In this regard, the following idea arises: by promoting engineering classes in a broad sense, it is possible to find a useful place in this process for some students in socio-economic classes. In any case, the experience of our gymnasium shows that students in these classes show interest in the direction of “Engineering Business and Management”. It seems that the involvement of socio-economic classes in interaction with the relevant faculties and departments of universities not only does not “overload” the “Engineering Classes” project, but also reasonably complements it due to what was said above about the separation of the roles of the engineer himself and the entrepreneur promoting engineering developments in life.
IT – you can’t go anywhere without them!
As one of the SEE-2016 speakers aptly noted, modern aircraft, rockets and many other types of technology are, in many ways, IT products. In the sense that an essential part of them are the software and hardware systems that control them. What can we say about “pure” IT services, which consist entirely of actual programs and represent a huge field of activity. And here another problem emerges - the shortage 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” held in June – August, namely at the third session “Young Scientists and Teachers in the Field of IT” that opened on July 13, 2016.
Thus, this problem also deserves to be addressed starting from school. 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 and participate in real process automation projects at enterprises as part of project teams.
At a meeting on June 30, 2016 about plans for the development of the “Engineering Class in a Moscow School” project for 2016/17, the Moscow Department of Education informed that a pool of partner enterprises from the IT industry was already being formed, which would be involved in career guidance work with schoolchildren. We will probably see another trend - increasing 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, taking into account and responding to existing and emerging trends in any segment of education, in particular, within the framework of the implementation of the “Engineering Class at the Moscow School” project, is a necessary condition for effective training of students.
The “Engineering Class in a Moscow School” project creates conditions for expanding network interaction between general education organizations, higher professional education organizations and research and production enterprises. Pooling the resources of project participants opens up new real paths to the engineering profession for schoolchildren.
A number of schools in the Novosibirsk region have had engineering classes for two years now. We decided to find out how the project is being implemented and how engineering education differs from regular education at the “Center for the Development of Creativity of Children and Youth” in the Novosibirsk Region.
Do we need engineers?
Such classes are in demand today,” says the center’s methodologist and robotics teacher Sergei YAKUSHKIN. - We all observe not better situation in production, the time has come to change it. And new engineers must do this. Now we need people with a new vision of the problem, familiar with modern equipment, advanced technologies, and our task is to prepare them.
There is no oil or gas in our region. Our main potential is intellectual,” adds colleague Ekaterina DEMINA, head of the department of psychological and pedagogical support for the development of intellectual talent at the Center for the Development of Creativity of Children and Youth. - Now specialists who have good engineering skills and can perform high-tech work in this direction with high quality are 50-60 years old. This is pre-retirement and retirement age. There are no young people among them. And there is a demand from industry, innovative, knowledge-intensive businesses for such specialists.
” According to teachers, the training of new engineers should begin not at a university, but at school. However, school graduates today are not ready to effectively study technical specialties.
If you look at today's statistics on the Unified State Exam, the level of two in mathematics is 20 points. And the minimum passing score in mathematics for technical universities is 36. The difference is only 16 points, and the applicant enters the university! - Sergey Yakushkin explains the situation. - The preparation of those who go to technical universities is extremely low. What kind of engineers will be produced with this level of training among schoolchildren?
” - Our goal is to cultivate an engineering elite, to revive that strong engineering corps that we lost in post-Soviet times, but at a modern level.
To solve this problem, not only new programs are used, but also new teaching methods.
Today we cooperate with the Novosibirsk State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (NSASU), Novosibirsk State University (NSU) and Technical University (NSTU). The main principle of our work is joint education of schoolchildren and students, when students become mentors of schoolchildren under the supervision of a curator from the university. This is very effective when the mentor is not very different in age from the student.
” It must be said that educational institutions such as the Engineering and Technical Lyceum at NSTU, the Aerospace Lyceum and others have previously operated in Novosibirsk. But the project to create engineering classes became the know-how of Novosibirsk, and the experience of teaching children in the physics and mathematics school at Novosibirsk State University was also used in its development. The educational institutions themselves turned out to be very interested in innovation.
When the project opened, it was decided to recruit 10 special classes, but 26 wanted to participate in the qualifying competition educational institutions, and therefore there were 15 classes,” recalls Yulia KLEIN, head of the department for supporting special classes at the “Center for the Development of Creativity of Children and Youth” in the Novosibirsk Region. - In addition to Novosibirsk, engineering classes were created in Berdsk and Karasuk. In 2014, they opened in two more districts of the region - Kupinsky and Maslyaninsky. Today there are 35 such classes, since our goal is to make engineering education accessible to all gifted children, this project went to the region.
How to raise an engineer
As Ekaterina Demina explained, a fundamentally important aspect of training in the new classes is the instillation of practical skills in working with equipment. Engineering classes recruit technically gifted children who study not only theory - mathematics, physics, but also engineering graphics, 3D design, modeling, robotics.
But today we still have to deal with a lack of modern equipment; in most schools, especially rural ones, it is at the level of 50-60 years, admits Ekaterina. - These are the machines that our parents, if not grandparents, used. Therefore, it is necessary to move away from old equipment and introduce new equipment - with CNC (computer numerical control).
” However, technical support for the educational process is not the only problem facing the organizers of engineering classes. The concept of training is also still in its infancy.
According to Ekaterina Demina, equally good command of theory and practice is a fundamentally important point:
In engineering classes there is a risk of replacing the development of engineering thinking with the simple solution of Olympiad problems. And we are faced with the task of training specialists of a new generation.
On the other hand, if we replace intellectual training with technological training,” reflects Sergei Yakushkin, “then we will reduce this to the level of vocational schools. And then at the end we will get, perhaps, a good worker, but not an engineer. Therefore, of course, an engineering class is more complex than just mathematics or physics: it must also have a high level of training in fundamental subjects, in addition to technological training.
Robotics - the first step into engineering
So far, engineering classes use robotics as a subject that combines both theoretical and practical components. To begin training in this area, a school only needs to purchase small and inexpensive tabletop machines.
” For larger-scale tasks, centers for collective use with more expensive equipment are created, for example, the Children's Technology Park and the Youth Innovative Creativity Center (CENT), located in the Academy Park.
These centers are equipped with completely new machines and devices, such as 3D printers, which make it possible to make any part, explains Sergei Yakushkin. - One school cannot purchase them, so general classes are organized. Children come to us from Koltsovo, Novosibirsk Lyceum No. 22 “Hope of Siberia”.
If we talk about the methodology of teaching robotics,” continues Sergei, “we, of course, use world experience. But we have greatly changed Western methods, so we can consider that now Russia has its own school of robotics, and this is one of the components of the intellectual potential of Akademgorodok. Researchers from institutes of the SB RAS may not be engineers by and large, but they receive very serious engineering skills. And this is being used in the engineering classes of the new comprehensive school.
Become an engineer. When?
In engineering classes, children study from the age of 12, although, according to Sergei Yakushkin, it would be optimal to start teaching teenagers from the age of 14, that is, from the 7th grade, when the children already have a conscious motivation for their future profession. But children are drawn to robotics as soon as they start playing with Lego, so they study it as a game from the first grade.
After 5th grade,” says Sergei Yakushkin, “we give conscious tasks. The child must make a robot. The game is there, but it recedes into the background. For older people, the task becomes even more difficult. And the oldest ones are already engaged in very complex programming of androids, humanoid robots. They teach them to see, recognize objects, read texts, and communicate.
” - At the summer science school “Laboratory Z”, which brings together gifted children from all over the region, this year six schoolchildren in grades 6-8 developed a “robohand” exoskeleton. They were given a technical task, and the children themselves figured out how to develop such a robot. Over the course of the season, under the guidance of the head of the laboratory and his assistants, they created a model that could completely replicate the movements of a human hand.
According to Yulia Klein, almost 86% of graduates of special classes plan to continue their studies in their chosen profile, which means they are following their dreams. The first graduation of two engineering classes, enrollment in which took place in 2013 and this year, will take place in the spring of 2015.
Photo courtesy of the NSO Center for the Development of Creativity of Children and Youth
BEGINNING OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION AT SCHOOL
THE BEGINNING OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS
A.C. Read, A.S. 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 initial training of engineering personnel at the very early stage- in primary and high school. Approaches to the development of technical thinking in 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 abilities in secondary schools. The role of a pedagogical university in the training of teachers to solve the problems of engineering training of schoolchildren, special training of teachers capable of actively developing 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.
Currently, Russia is experiencing an acute shortage of highly trained engineering personnel with developed technical thinking and capable of ensuring the rise of innovative high-tech industries.
The relevance of training engineering personnel is discussed both at the regional and federal levels. To confirm this, let us quote from the speech of Russian President V.V. Putin “...Today in the country there is a clear shortage of engineering and technical workers, and first of all, workers corresponding to the current level of development of our society. If recently we talked about being in a period of Russia’s survival, now we are! we are entering the international arena and must provide competitive products, introduce advanced innovative technologies, nanotechnology, and this requires appropriate personnel. But today, unfortunately, we don’t have them...” [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 OC “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 interest in technology and invention in a young man 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 even more early age. In our deep conviction, if a teenager is 11-13
years old, does not like to study with a designer on his own, is not passionate about beautiful and effective technical designs, and is most likely already lost for future engineering training.
To develop the technical thinking of a schoolchild 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, the conscious choice of a professional direction will directly depend on this activities of a boy or girl. At the same time, the active position of a teacher cannot arise on its own; systematic and conscious development and training of a future or already working teacher is necessary, aimed at mastering pedagogical technologies that make it possible to prepare an engineer. In general, just as theater begins with a hanger, so engineering education should begin with the preparation of a school teacher for activities in this direction. That is why a pedagogical university is the first step in training a teacher who can develop and maintain motivation for technical creativity in schoolchildren.
We consider it necessary to note that this problem did not appear yesterday. Since the 18th century, the Russian state has taken special care to educate the engineering elite, the so-called “Russian system of engineering education.”
As rightly noted by V.A. Rubanov, “before the revolution, an incredibly strong hurricane once swept through the United States. Every bridge in the state was blown away except one. The one that was designed by a Russian engineer. True, by this time the engineer had been fired - for... the unreasonably high reliability of the structure - it was economically unprofitable for the company" [Rubanov, 2012, p. 1].
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 pro-
simple but extremely important principles. The first is fundamental education as the basis of engineering knowledge. The second is connecting education with engineering training. The third is the practical application of knowledge and engineering skills in solving current 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 set of understandings, ways of thinking and skills - what is called a high engineering culture. Technical innovations need to be mastered “here and now.” But education is something else. It seems that Daniil Granin has an exact formula: “Education is what remains when everything learned is forgotten” [Ibid., p. 3].
Based on the above, we summarize that characteristic feature Engineer training lies in a solid natural science, mathematical and ideological foundation of knowledge, a breadth of interdisciplinary system-integrative knowledge about nature, society, thinking, as well as a high level of general professional and specialized professional knowledge. This knowledge ensures activities in problematic situations and allow us 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 activities are characterized by the fact that when developing a project, research elements are necessarily introduced into the group’s activities. This means that based on “traces,” indirect signs, collected facts, it is necessary to restore a certain law, an order of things established by nature or society [Leontovich, 2003]. Such activities develop observation, attentiveness, and analytical skills, which are a component of engineering thinking.
The effectiveness of using 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 during the implementation of the project. When carrying out small local projects, the main task of the working group is to obtain a finished product of their joint activity. At the same time, such important qualities for a future engineer are developed, such as the ability to work in a team, share responsibility for the decision made, analyze the result obtained and evaluate the degree to which the goal has been achieved. In the process 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 main 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 interconnected and take into account the technological bias of teaching these disciplines;
The system-forming and integrating all the main disciplines is the subject “Robotics and Technology”;
Active use of the second half of the day in the educational process for design, research and practical activities of students;
The emphasis in teaching is not on gifted students, but on students interested in developing technical thinking (learning depends on the degree of motivation, and not on previous educational successes);
Students gather in the “engineering group” only for compulsory classes in physics, mathematics and computer science, being the rest of the time in their regular classes (training group).
current schoolchildren are not structurally allocated into a separate class from their parallel);
The training of the “engineering group” is based on a network principle.
Let's look at these conditions in more detail.
The first condition we highlight is fundamental training in the main basic disciplines - physics, mathematics, computer science. Without key, fundamental knowledge in physics and mathematics, it is difficult to expect further successful progress in students mastering the basics of technical thinking. At the same time, fundamental training for future physicists and engineers is two very different things. In the development of technical thinking, the main requirement from the subject of physics is a real understanding of the phenomena occurring during the technical implementation of a specific project. Sufficient mathematical preparation allows you to first make a preliminary assessment of the necessary conditions, and then accurately calculate 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 (often this can even harm the adoption of an informed technical decision).
According to V.G. Gorokhov, “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, different from both ordinary and scientific” [Gorokhov, 1987].
Fundamental training of future engineers is achieved through the development of special programs in physics, mathematics and computer science, 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 occurs largely due to the use of workshops in training, focused on solving applied and technical problems, as well as
same execution research projects after noon.
The subject of robotics is system-forming and integrating for all basic subjects of study. Creating a robot allows you to merge the physical principles of the design into a single whole, evaluate its implementation, calculate its actions, and program it to obtain a certain finished result.
Unlike other similar schools, in which basic and additional education are not connected into a single educational process, our programs for their implementation use the opportunities of additional education in the afternoon. They include workshops and design and research activities of schoolchildren. During this work, students complete small, complete engineering projects that allow them to apply knowledge acquired in all major disciplines. These projects include all the main stages of real engineering activity: invention, design, design and production of a really working model.
Another condition for building engineering education is to focus not on gifted students with high results, but on students interested in engineering, who may not have 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 demonstrated themselves, by exploiting their high interest in this field 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 organization of classes in them. For this purpose, at the Institute of Mathematics, Physics, Informatics of the KSPU named after. V.P. Astafiev created a special robotics laboratory designed to conduct classes with schoolchildren and students.
At the moment, a significant number of schools have specialized physics and mathematics classes, and one might assume that such classes successfully prepare 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 in more detail about the profession of an engineer, much less “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 learn this or that subject better, but does not help them 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 core subjects into a single whole. This can be achieved by introducing a unified technical component into the programs of the main subjects (in their practical and training parts).
In addition, the process of reforming existing educational structures in order to identify a specialized class is painful and controversial. Often, the reluctance to move to another class and 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 elitism of their education.
In our opinion, E.V. spoke interestingly about graduates of physics and mathematics schools. Krylov: “...I worked at Novosibirsk University on a course in mathematical analysis and observed the future fate of graduates of specialized schools. Convinced that they knew everything, they often relaxed in the first year of university and within a year they were losing to students who came from regular 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 special
allocated laboratories from their permanent classes. After completing classes for other subjects, students return to their usual established classes and serve as guides and promoters of the benefits of developing engineering education in the school environment.
In the case of creating a dedicated class, we solve many organizational problems at once, but at the same time we deprive schoolchildren of the opportunity to develop independence and responsibility, since these competencies can only be developed under certain conditions and these conditions are absent when studying in a dedicated class.
We have developed this project and have been implementing it since 2013. The project team includes employees of the Institute of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics of the KSPU named after. V.P. Astafieva, representatives of the administration and teachers of the gymnasium1. Based on our work experience in 2013-1014, our project team came to a conscious decision about the need to organize 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 production sector of the economy, and parents.
Network interaction allows for the joint development of original educational programs. Based on the teams of all project participants, a joint team of teachers and representatives of the profession is formed. The equipment and premises of each organization are shared by network participants, and the project is jointly financed.
There are additional 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 technical thinking of schoolchildren - this is the “Center for Youth Innovative Creativity (CYIT)”, where unique digital equipment for 30-typing is installed, the other is the “Youth Research institute gymnasium (MIIG)”, engaged in design and research activities with schoolchildren in the afternoon.
Let us designate all equal subjects of the currently established network 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 partly in the second.
Institutions of additional education (CMIT, MIIG) - implement the project-based teaching load for students in the afternoon.
Pedagogical University (KSPU) - develops and controls the 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 based on their training centers and equipment.
Parents finance additional education services, participate in organizing field events, and influence schoolchildren through individual representatives with engineering professions.
Such a network device is possible with the work of a united, open team of teachers, representatives of professions and interested parents.
At the same time, each subject of this network can perform its own specific functions in the joint educational process. In relation to the Center for Natural Sciences named after. M.V. Lomonosov, the currently available network structure is shown in Fig.
Rice. Network device diagram of the Center
Let us now return to the question of the role of a pedagogical university in training personnel to solve the problems of engineering training for schoolchildren. To prepare a teacher who is ready to actively develop the technical thinking of a student, his special and targeted training is necessary. It so happened that within the framework of the Institute of Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science there are all the necessary professional opportunities for training such a teacher. Within the institute there are departments of mathematics, physics, computer science and technology. Currently, the institute has developed and adopted a two-profile bachelor's degree program linking physics and technology. The training program for future technology teachers is currently being revised based on the objectives of the engineering school. The program of mathematical training for students has been changed, courses in descriptive geometry, graphics and drawing have been added. The educational materials in terms of trigonometry, elementary functions and vector algebra have been significantly changed. Technological students are taught the discipline “Robotics”. Currently de-
Attempts are being made to change physics training by linking physics workshops with technological applications.
Bibliography
1. Gorokhov V.G. Know to do. M., 1987.
2. Krylov E.V., Krylov O.N. Is premature development harmful to intelligence? // 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. P. 18-24.
4. Putin V.V. Opinions of Russian politicians about the shortage of engineering personnel. 04/11/2011 // State news (GOSNEWS.ru). Internet publication [Electronic resource]. URL: http://www.gosnews.ru/business_and_ authority/news/643
5. Rubanov V.A. Projects in dreams and in reality, or About the Russian system of training engineers // Nezavisimaya Gazeta. 2012. 12. No. 25.
In Arkhangelsk, one of the first experiences of introducing robotics in school curriculum, development of thinking and inspiration.
— Denis Gennadievich, tell us how your path in educational robotics began. When did you start becoming interested in her? Where did it all start?
— Is there a day that dramatically changed my worldview? 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 classroom and we had to run around the classrooms and teach computer science to schoolchildren with chalk in hand. When you have previously worked as an engineer in an IT company for 10 years, the contrast is mind-blowing. Therefore, at the first stage it was necessary to create a normal office. In principle, the computer science classroom acquired its recognizable shape in the summer of 2008. The second question arose: in the form in which computer science was present in textbooks, this academic discipline did not make me very happy. In addition, in 2008, incredibly talented children came to 5th grade. “Giving a textbook” to such children is disrespecting oneself.
It so happened that at that time I received the city mayor’s award and ended up in the “Children’s World” store, which sold the Lego MINDSTROMS NXT set at a discount. The amounts matched. And the next day, the 10th graders enjoyed studying the robotics kit on their own, and stayed in the classroom for 6 hours. And then everything began to develop very actively. Now in our gymnasium we have the best base in the Arkhangelsk region for technical creativity in the field of robotics and have everything: Lego WeDo, MINDSTORMS, VEX, ARDUINO, myDAQ, myRIO, TRIK, etc., etc.
These children, from 2008 to 2015 (grades 5-11), with their talent and simply irrepressible desire to learn, practically forced us to work, work, work. Until now, all roboticists remember them: how was it possible to study technical vision on the TRIC platform until 22:30 on December 30, while studying in the 11th grade? And not because there were any competitions or conferences (there were none). But because it’s interesting and it works out.
— Tell us about yourself, where did you study, what is your professional path?
— By education, he is 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 go to work at school right away. He served in the Border Troops, was engaged in scientific activities in graduate school (the 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 knowledge, methodology, experience and understanding of what I would do and how, I went to work “by profession.”
— Why are technical creativity classes important? Do future engineers “discover” in robotics classes?
— Engineers should be and are trained at universities. And engineers are made when, having received an education, they themselves implement engineering projects and perform engineering tasks.
Everything a school can do: career guidance, motivation, education and development. I didn’t even use the word “training.” Because you can’t teach anyone anything, you can only learn. Therefore, at the gymnasium we try to create conditions in which the child will have the opportunity to find his own path, will have a choice of educational trajectory that ensures his development and will be motivated. This year, 67% of our 9th grade graduates chose computer science as an exam - this is about the issue of technical creativity as effective career guidance.
On the other hand, it is important who listens to the answer. By engaging in technical creativity, it is easier for a teacher to work with children, since issues of educational motivation no longer bother him. When we were just starting our journey in educational robotics, we conducted research on the educational motivation of schoolchildren. For this reason, I even completed training at the “School of Teacher-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 I really wanted. The motivation of schoolchildren is definitely growing.
Information for parents: you sent your child to a sports section (or a similar one), you sent it to an arts section, but haven’t you forgotten about the development of intelligence? Tutors do not develop it.
For a student: by engaging in technical creativity, grades in mathematics, physics, computer science, English and Russian improve. Surprised? Each roboticist will tell his own success story. You want to understand that your knowledge is actually scattered. Yes, there are grades, but what about knowledge? Come and check it out. Or are you studying just for the sake of grades? When you solve a problem, the teacher always knows the answer. But in robotics everything is different. We will search together. This real creativity, this is your independent thinking!
— At Gymnasium No. 24, robotics is included in the general education program, is that correct? When did it happen? In Russia this is still a rarity.
“I’ll start from afar again.” Educational organization, where he came to work in 2006, had this name: “Secondary comprehensive school No. 24 with in-depth study of artistic and aesthetic subjects.” Music, theater, choreography, art- these are the core subjects. In such an environment, it was very obvious that the children really lacked the technical component in their educational trajectory. Where can I get it? For this reason, all equipment began to be used as a methodological tool for computer science teachers. The training programs allowed this. That is, children programmed both robots and microcontrollers during computer science lessons (in 2009 this happened with the Lego MINDSTORMS platform, in 2011 with the Arduino platform).
Next, we launched the “Beginnings of Engineering Education at School” project, within which, in a specially created learning environment based on engineering laboratories, students from grades 5 to 11 study computer science in inextricable connection with issues of physics, engineering, and mathematics. This is how we implement STEM education (STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, math, i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Later, robotics appeared in the curriculum of the gymnasium for fifth-graders, and for older students, elective subjects in technical areas. For example, 10th graders of a specialized physics and mathematics class have a mandatory 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 to graduates fragments of the approved Model Program of Basic General Education, in which robotics, microcontrollers, and 3D printers became an integral part of computer science in grades 5-9. And everything that was some kind of innovation just a few years ago became commonplace.
— Tell us about your textbooks on robotics, because these are also still rare textbooks in Russian education, not counting transfers.
— To be honest, as they say, textbooks did not materialize “from a good life.” It’s just that 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 one book by Sergei Aleksandrovich Filippov. In 2012, the publishing house published a workshop and workbook “The First Step into Robotics” (later republished 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, representatives of National Instruments offered to write a manual on the NI myDAQ platform, without limiting creativity and ideas. A year later, the “Introduction to Digital Electronics” workshop appeared, and the wonderful myDAQ platform became an effective tool for this. The manual was published on the Intel Education Galaxy website (in the form of posts), but unfortunately, the site will cease to exist this summer.
In 2015, I was lucky enough to participate in the preparation of the textbook “Microcontrollers - the basis of digital devices” for the TETRA educational kit from Amperka. This is programming the Arduino platform in grades 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’m writing a book on modeling in OpenSCAD. I don’t know how her fate will turn out in the future, but in my work I simply need her vitally. In computer science there is a topic called “Algorithm Executors,” and among these implementers is the Draftsman. In my opinion, it is no different from a 3D printer, and in OpenSCAD the model is not drawn, but described by a script in a C-like language. That is, again, programming.
— How are classes going in room 211? What about outside of class? Why did you abandon the circle model?
The first time children encounter technical (engineering) areas is in the 5th grade, again in computer science lessons or an elective. And then the principle “If you want to live in an office, live!” is included. Students choose when it is convenient for them to come. The result is an educational environment where students in grades 5-11 simultaneously do what they love about being technically creative. The elders help the younger ones, the younger ones “copy” the elders. It’s like a school, not in the sense of “institution,” but as a direction in science and culture.
The circle model... I will not criticize the circle model. The circle model is about finances and teacher remuneration. Not a single methodologist and not a single inspector will allow classes to be conducted with students in grades 5-11 at the same time, because no one can write a program (which of course must take into account age characteristics). But on a voluntary basis, everything is possible. So, I don’t have any circles.
In 2015, our gymnasium had an amazing graduation of schoolchildren who formed our trend “Live in the office!” I had an emotional “explosion” - as a result, the book “Beginnings of Engineering Education at School” appeared with the Intel logo on the cover. If any teacher is at a crossroads about whether to start their journey into educational robotics, look through it, and you will make an unambiguous choice.
— You use different equipment, you have as many as 15 directions. Why is such diversity needed? Do children interact with everything?
— Firstly, the variety of equipment is very convenient for the teacher, as it allows you to take 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 specialized physics and mathematics classes we try to provide such areas as research and project activities. There are approximately 60 people in specialized classes. Everyone will die of boredom if there is only one direction, and I will be the first.
It is worth noting that the directions do not arise from the equipment. For example, we started directions related to National Instruments technologies at the gymnasium for the reason that our Northern (Arctic) Federal University has 8 research and teaching laboratories based on their equipment. That is, you can continue to work in each of the areas after graduating from our gymnasium.
In fact, most likely, we would not have had such a number of directions and equipment without the graduates of 2015. I simply did not have time to, as they say, “bring shells to them.” That edition knew and worked with all the equipment: it was unpacked right in front of them, and very often the delivery took place right in the classroom. I'll give you one more example. There was a guy in that class who loved English language(he is now studying to become a linguist), naturally, for him I got a thick book of 700 pages, Arduino Cookbook. You can’t imagine with what thirst he “ate” it (the word read doesn’t sound here), while performing experiments with Arduino. Three guys came to assemble the first 3D printer in the office on Sunday, then they learned the software faster than me (you need to model) and helped me. They devoured what I prepared for the week according to lessons in 2 days. Well, we had to prepare new, new, new.
- You are holding your own festival - RoboSTEM. Was the first festival in January of this year?
— Yes, together with the Arkhangelsk Center for Youth Innovative Creativity. The first one took place this year. We decided that it was important to hold our own (regional) festival. Why now? Our roboticist graduates have already matured enough: the panel of judges consisted of graduates who studied robotics in our gymnasium and in the 17th lyceum of the city of Severodvinsk (this is another powerful center for the development of educational robotics in our region).
- How it was? How many children took part in it?
— On January 15, our Arkhangelsk gymnasium No. 24 hosted an open festival on technical creativity in the field of robotics “RoboSTEM”, 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 they could work/play with equipment, and exhibitions for festival guests. And, of course, everyone could feel like either a fan or a participant in a robotics competition.
At the opening of the festival, parting words were addressed to the participants by: Vitaly Sergeevich Fortygin, Deputy Chairman of the Arkhangelsk Regional Assembly of Deputies; Semyon Alekseevich Vuymenkov, Minister of Economic Development of the Arkhangelsk Region; Sergey Nikolaevich Deryabin - Chairman of the regional Association of Initiatives for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, General Director of InterStroy LLC and other distinguished guests of the festival.
Schoolchildren participating in the festival prepared more than 100 models of robots, 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 old schoolchildren. 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 you to support schoolchildren in their passion for robotics, on the other hand, it helps to attract new participants, popularize this area of innovative creativity, and give young northerners a chance to feel like real engineers and inventors, raising the designers of the future.
I would like to especially thank the Lego Education company, which supported our festival and established prizes for 5 educational institutions for preparing the best teams and supporting the best coaches.
— How will the festival change in 2018? Are you planning any changes to the program or nominations?
— Of course, we are planning evolutionary changes. There will be more nominations. There will be more competitions. For example, there will be a competition for working with 3D pens. We have already purchased the required quantity. There will be an Olympics on Lego WeDo and WeDo 2.0; teachers from the Archangel Center for Technical Creativity, Sports and Children's Development are helping us organize it. The 3D modeling competition will be strictly based on T-FLEXCAD.
— What other educational and competitive projects are you involved in? Which ones are you planning?
— Of course, the most unexpected and stunning result of the festival was the holding of the “Future Engineer” Olympiad in April. Representatives of small business manufacturing companies, having visited the festival, set the task of making a prototype of a grinding machine based on Lego MINDSTORMS, ensuring good repeatability of actions and clearly describing mathematical model. This is how the “Future Engineer” Olympiad appeared, which took place on April 26. The winners of the Olympiad spent 4 hours “handing in their work,” as they say, “on record” (dictaphone, camera). Schoolchildren's solutions will be embodied in real equipment, in operating machines.
Currently, on the territory of our gymnasium, the old greenhouse building is being reconstructed, which, after completion of the work, will house a center for technical creativity. This project, called “Industrial School”, is supervised by the 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 just eludes me: a robotics tutorial based on the National Instruments myRIO platform. The deadline is September 1, 2018, since the students for whom all this is being planned will be in the 11th grade.
— Tell us about your successes, the successes of schoolchildren, what has been especially memorable lately?
— 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 use very carefully and slowly (and for the first time we will not rush anywhere). This year, at the 5th regional robotics tournament Robonord, which takes place in Severodvinsk (this year on April 23), most of our teams were prepared by schoolchildren, that is, I was not the coach, but our experienced roboticists. And on April 26 we have the “Future Engineer” Olympiad, naturally, I was all in preparation for the important Olympiad. Thus, our superheroes (coaches) prepared the teams better than I have ever prepared schoolchildren for competitions (24 prizes out of 33 possible).
At the same time, 5 teams of fifth-graders were prepared by sixth-grader Polina: she organized everything and everyone through social network, explained the regulators to them, without ever using this word (she reworked and adapted the entire theory), developed a strategy, controlled everything, “fought” the judges at competitions, citing regulations. And she was very happy when her fifth-graders succeeded. All fifth-graders know why they should study robotics. To become like Polina.
Koposov Denis Gennadievich,MBOU OG No. 24 of the city of Arkhangelsk, computer science teacher,
[email protected], www.koposov.info
BEGINNING OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION AT SCHOOL
BEGINNING OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS
Annotation.
The article presents the experience of organizing and conducting engineering-oriented elective and optional courses in computer science at school. Issues of increasing educational motivation and professional guidance of students are discussed.
Keywords:
Informatics training, 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, the Russian Federation is experiencing an engineering crisis - a shortage of engineering personnel and the absence of a younger 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, and this issue is regularly raised at the government level. “Today in the country there is a clear shortage of engineering and technical workers, workers and, first of all, workers corresponding to the current level of development of our society. If recently we were still talking about the fact that we are in a period of survival for Russia, now we are entering the international arena and must provide competitive products, introduce advanced innovative technologies, nanotechnologies, and for this we need appropriate personnel. But today, unfortunately, we don’t have them” (V.V. Putin).
What is usually proposed to change the current situation? In addition to raising the status of the profession and increasing salaries for engineers, the “diversity” of proposals comes down to two directions: strengthening the selection of applicants and organizing pre-university additional training for graduates either at school or at a university:
“Other, constructive approaches are needed to ensure the influx of well-prepared applicants focused on enrolling in technical universities. One of these approaches is the widespread development of Olympiads for schoolchildren... Another way to form a contingent of applicants is targeted admission... It is necessary to pay the most serious attention to the polytechnic education of schoolchildren, to restore the necessary volumes of technological training for students in secondary schools, which was relatively recently, to develop clubs and at home children's technical creativity" (Fedorov I.B.);
“To make part of the 10th and 11th grades “pre-university.” In addition to school teachers, university teachers should work there. If we thus transfer some of the fundamental disciplines to school, a four-year program at the university will be enough to prepare not an “unfinished” engineer, but a bachelor capable of taking an engineering position.” (Pokholkov Yu.P.) .
The second approach involves transferring part of the educational material to secondary schools - at first glance, a wonderful proposal “from above”, but it causes indignation among teachers. Now there is a gap between secondary and higher education, and neither one nor the other side is in a hurry to meet each other halfway: teacher training courses can only be taken at 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 to understand how school teachers will look against the background of university professors and associate professors (and vice versa). This scheme is more or less feasible only in urban lyceums, the capabilities of which, again, are not enough to satisfy the needs of both universities and the country for trained applicants. A vicious circle that creates panic and a reluctance to change anything, or simply “assign” someone to blame (“they don’t teach well at school” is the most popular belief of higher education workers). “The education system itself has begun to degrade everywhere. In this regard, the oldest and most powerful educational institution - the family - with its ability for holistic education and the transfer of “informal knowledge” acquires exceptional importance. Accordingly, engineering training at a university, in a small company, in the forms of additional education takes on a holistic personal character” (Saprykin D.L.). “In my opinion, there is no need to specifically identify abilities for the exact sciences. It is necessary to develop clubs, electives, elective courses, subject Olympiads - this will be enough. You can add career guidance. To develop abilities in both the exact sciences and the humanities, it is necessary to work according to the principle: teach to the extent of psychological readiness for perception” (Krylov E.V.).
It was in this 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 different level, within the framework of which we created in our school in 2012 - gymnasiums) engineering laboratories (robotics and microelectronics) and We use them within the framework of the model of continuous information education.
When we started developing this direction, it turned out that in the Russian Federation there is no way to rely on someone else’s experience, which is usually represented by classes with a small group of enthusiastic students (3-5 people), i.e. 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 secondary schools. Therefore, when choosing the main vector of laboratory development, 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 on the research and use of new media and new technologies - predicted widespread use for learning by 2013–2014. smart objects, including Arduino microcontrollers, an open-source platform for designing electronic devices that allow students to control the interaction of these devices with the surrounding physical environment.
It is worth paying special attention to the full name of our school: municipal budgetary educational institution of the municipal formation "City of Arkhangelsk" "Secondary comprehensive school No. 24 with in-depth study of artistic and aesthetic subjects" (since June 2012 - "General education gymnasium No. 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 by 2030:
User Modeling- monitoring and modeling of professional qualities and educational achievements of students;
Mobile Tool s - turning mobile devices into educational tools;
Networking Tools- use of network 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 for interaction with the physical world.
The first task that we had to solve was the creation of an educational environment that reflected all the trends and directions of development of these educational technologies - engineering laboratories.
During 2010–2012, without government funding, we created and used engineering laboratories in the educational process in the following areas:
LEGO robotics (15 training places based on the educational construction set LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT);
microcontroller programming (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 acquisition and measurement systems (15 training places based on the National Instruments myDAQ student mobile laboratory complex and NI LabVIEW software);
sensors and signal processing (15 training places based on sets 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 when 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 activity and invention become impossible without a scientific basis. During the classes, students gain real work organization skills for the first time in their lives; 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 multi-component 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, management and operational professional activities. This is no longer just career guidance, it is the promotion of science using the most modern educational technologies.
In this case, computer science teachers are the main driving force, therefore, in the system of training (and advanced training) for computer science teachers, it is necessary to take into account the educational capabilities of robotics and microelectronics laboratories and include the corresponding disciplines in training programs. Future teachers, students of the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of NArFU named after M.V., are trained at the school. Lomonosov (direction “Physics and Mathematics Education”), classes are also held for teachers.
After several classes with computer science teachers in the Arkhangelsk region, a rather important fact was noted - the teachers’ unwillingness to apply the experience they had seen. The survey revealed the reasons for this-many teachers are either not interested in developing an engineering component or believe that this area is not their strength. For this reason, we began to regularly conduct extensive consultations, workshops, master classes for teachers, with the aim of presenting our experience to the entire teaching community, webinars were held on the Intel Education Galaxy (recordings are available for viewing).
What results have we achieved in 2 years, besides directly creating the educational environment itself? Firstly, it is worth noting that among school graduates in 2011, 60% chose further studies in higher educational institutions specifically in engineering specialties (i.e., after graduation they will receive an engineering diploma).
Secondly, we have begun preparations for publication teaching aids. In May 2012, the publishing house “BINOM Knowledge Laboratory” released an educational and methodological set on computer science and ICT “The first step into robotics”: a workshop and workbook on robotics for students in grades 5–6 (author: Koposov D.G.). The purpose of the workshop is to give schoolchildren a modern understanding of the applied science involved in the development of automated technical systems - robotics. The workshop contains a description of current social, scientific and technical tasks and problems, solutions that have yet to be found by future generations. This allows students to feel like researchers, designers and inventors of technical devices. The manual can be used both for classroom teaching and for 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 classes 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 use the time allotted for computer science and ICT more productively, and also gives the child the opportunity to control and comprehend their activities and their results. The workbook helps with practical, creative and research work.
Thirdly, created and tested training program additional education for students in grades 9–11 “Fundamentals of microprocessor control systems”, 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 simultaneous consideration of basic, theoretical provisions. This approach involves conscious and creative assimilation of the material, as well as its productive use in experimental design activities.
In the process of theoretical training, schoolchildren become familiar 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, practical, research and applied programming. During special assignments, schoolchildren acquire general, special and professional competencies in the use of electronic components in microprocessor-based automated control systems, which are consolidated 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 conduct 17 hour or 34 hour elective courses. This program has been implemented for the second year at MBOU OG No. 24 of the city of Arkhangelsk in elective classes for students in the 9th and 10th grades.
The question must arise: what is the reason for so many teaching laboratories? Having created the first laboratory, we, together with an educational psychologist, studied the dynamics of educational motivation of schoolchildren. Methods used: observation, conversations with parents and teachers, scaling, T.D.’s technique was also used. Dubovitskaya. The purpose of the methodology is to identify the direction and determine the level of development of students’ internal learning motivation when studying specific subjects (in our case, computer science and robotics). The methodology is based on a test questionnaire consisting of 20 judgments and suggested answer options. Processing is carried out in accordance with the key. The technique can be used in working with all categories of students capable of self-analysis and self-report, starting from approximately 12 years of age. The results obtained, on the one hand, allow us to confidently speak about an increase in the level of educational motivation in almost every schoolchild, on the other hand, after a year, the level of motivation began to decrease and tend to the level that 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. Academic motivation is the main factor in a non-core school that influences a student’s success. We will continue to study changes in learning motivation in the future.
The second question that teachers often ask: how can microelectronics, robotics and engineering education in general be connected with the specifics of our school - in-depth study of artistic and aesthetic subjects? First, the fact is that the Arduino platform, on which most of the labs are based, was originally developed to train designers and artists (people with little technical experience). Even without programming experience, students, after just 10 minutes of familiarization, already begin to understand the code, change it, conduct observations, and do small research. At the same time, in each lesson, a really working prototype of a device can be created (a beacon, a traffic light, a night light, a garland, a prototype of a street lighting system, an electric bell, a door closer, a thermometer, a household noise meter, etc.), and students improve your level of technological self-efficacy. Secondly, what it means to be an engineer was wonderfully formulated by Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa: “In my opinion, there are few good engineers. A good engineer must consist of four parts: 25% - be a theoretician; 25% - an artist (you can’t design a car, you need to draw it - that’s what I was taught, and I also think so); 25% - by the experimenter, i.e. explore your car; and 25% he must be an inventor. This is how an engineer should be composed. This is very rough and there may be variations. But all these elements must be there."
Separately, I would like to emphasize that 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 the teacher’s work program. This is very important, especially when starting such projects in schools, when the fear of the inevitability of completing a huge number of papers can stop any teacher.
Recently, digital educational resources have become extremely popular. Statistics of downloads from sites fcior. edu. ru and school-collection. edu. ru it confirms. Regional and municipal education departments hold a huge number of competitions and seminars on the use of digital educational resources in schools. During the last 5–6 years many universities have been effectively using the software environment LabVIEW from National Instruments in research and educational work. Virtual laboratories and workshops in natural sciences are being developed and introduced into the educational process. Analyzing abstracts of candidate and doctoral dissertations in 2009–2011, it is worth noting a large number of works that use software NI LabVIEW , including specialty 13.00.02 (theory and methods of training and education). This software is installed in our school. Thus, students as part of their computer science education will be able to become familiar with how such laboratory complexes are designed and developed.
I would also like to note the developing function of studying robotics and microelectronics at school. Systematic work with small parts 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 basic brain functions, which has a positive effect on attention, observation, memory, imagination, speech and, of course, develops creativity thinking
The bottleneck of many research and projects is often the inability to scale quickly. The experience we have accumulated allowed us to scale up the project in the general education lyceum No. 17 of the city of Severodvinsk in the shortest possible time (30 days), which emphasizes the practical significance of our work.
Research from tech companies shows that if we don't have children interested and passionate about engineering as early as 7–9th grade, the likelihood that they will successfully pursue an engineering career is very low. Computer science teachers, by promoting natural sciences, mathematics, engineering and technology through interdisciplinary elective and elective courses and additional education systems, can more effectively influence students’ choice of future profession. 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.
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