An Engineer at 3-years-old?

Surely, just because Andrew's such a clever three-year-old playing
with his Legos, doesn't mean he's going to grow up to be an engineer. After all his Dad played with Legos too, and he's not an engineer.

But wait. Seems elementary schools across the country are
teaching engineering . . . with help.

City College of New York (CUNY) promotes a program to teach
kindergartners engineering concepts. "Stuff that Works" only costs $17 per teacher to implement. CUNY also has a program to teach
engineering to Girl Scouts. And City College of New York isn't alone.

The Boston Museum of Science with funding from Intel charges $6,000 to fully equip an entire elementary school for Engineering is Elementary. Texas Instruments funds the Infinity Project developed by Southern Methodist University for high school students.

Once you move into middle school and high school, the price goes up. Project Lead the Way, partnering with Lockheed Martin, charges high schools $75,000 for a four-year program to teach kids engineering principles. 2,200 schools have found the money to take advantage
of this opportunity.

Even Lego's doing it's share of engineering outreach. Sponsored by Tufts University and paid for by NASA, LegoVIEW is designed to teach engineering concepts K-12. Using software and those little plastic bricks, kindergartners in Medford, Massachusetts built their own town with automated bus stops.

Why? Lockheed, Texas Instruments, and Intel care about the severe shortage of engineers. Fewer and fewer American kids are going on to graduate school in engineering.

And schools care about test scores in math and science. Remember those Finnish kids from a few blog posts ago? Maybe having working scientists help write the curriculum and boosting the work with corporate money will help save U.S. kids from being at the bottom of the heap in science and math.

We don't know yet. The research isn't in. It's too early in this experiment to see if test scores are higher for kids who take these classes. Much less to know if a corporate-funded K-12 engineering curriculum increases the number of engineers. But given our current track record, these programs are sure worth a try.

I'm not alone here. Massachusetts requires engineering content in grades K-12. New Hampshire and New Jersey followed suit. And Texas is considering it, as corporate engineering groups lobby school boards and state legislatures. Even the U.S. Department of Education agrees and will include technology and engineering concepts in national assesment tests in 2009.

However, in order for any engineering, science, or math projects to work, we need to focus on brain-based learning with programs like Brain Gym to help right-brain dominant kids use the left-side of their brain. I sure don't know any right-brain dominant engineers!

Hmm. Wonder if the shortage of engineers and low math and science test scores are related to the ever-increasing number of right-brain dominant children?

Who knows? Given his head start with Legos, maybe in two years, Andrew will be in the advanced placement kindergarten engineering class after all.

MaryJo

P.S. Wondering if your child is right-brain or left-brain dominant? They can take the kids' brain dominance test Want to know about your class? All the kids can take the quiz. And you can take the grown-up version

Maybe No Child Left Behind isn't a Failure After All

Don't want to forget to remind you that I've got a spot open for you in tonight's Brain Gym Basics TeleChat. Learn to lower stress, stop procastinating, and stay on track.

Was looking for a location for the June, Colorado Springs, Brain Gym class this morning and thought of my friend Debbie. Wondered if her school might be interested in playing host.

Since two teachers come free in exchange for the room, figured it could be a win/win. When her school email bounced, I gave her a ring.

Now she's working with Success for All, a reading and math program used in more than 1,500 schools around the country. And was delighted to find that a teacher she's working with in a North Dakota classroom was doing Brain Gym with the kids too.

The program's not cheap, 75,000 to initiate and $10,000 a year to keep it going. But what a success it's been. Principals at Title I schools have said it's worth every penny. Because Success for All meets the Federal requirements of Reading First (a requirement of No Child Left Behind), grant funding is available.

The Seattle Times reports that it's common to find students reading all the time and loving it! And school officials are loving it too since they've seen a boost in test scores.

At Minnie H. School in North Dakota, only 23 percent of the kids read at grade level. After implementing Success for All, one amazed 1st grade teacher reported an entire class reading at grade level.

In the Bronx, PS 65 became the 5th most improved school in NYC after using both reading component and Math Wings of this remarkable program.

Success for All backs up their claim with the numbers, including state by state by state statistics.

To improve reading, Success for All includes programs emphasizing intense and immediate intervention, language development, family literacy, helping struggling readers, building phonics skills and reading comprehension. And works to coordinate family, community, and school resources.

What makes Success for All work? It's teacher and whole school training and committment plus persistence. Same thing that makes Brain Gym work.

When a teacher or a parent tells me Brain Gym doesn't work, I ask "How often do you do Brain Gym with the kids?" Invariably the answer is "Oh, we tried it a couple of times."

A couple of times just doesn't do it--whether it's Success for All or Brain Gym. And I vote for using both programs! Success for All is the curriculum, the motivation, the involvement. Brain Gym gets the brain moving to work efficiently and quickly.

With all the negative press about No Child Left Behind--even in this blog--it's exciting to report on the success of Success for All. I love being wrong when something that helps kids works after all--if even just some of the time.

MaryJo

So What do the Finns know about Brain Boosters?

Finnish teens waste time online in chat rooms and downloading music. They rebel by dying their hair black. No different than the teens I know.

So why do Finnish kids score higher in science and math than U.S. kids do? Way higher. The US isn't even in the top ten!

Now it certainly isn't because our kids are dumb! They're just as smart as Finnish kids. Or any other kids who are scoring higher in math and science.

Fanny Salo, whose picture here appeared in the "Wall Street Journal," attends Norsii School in Jyvaskyla. She loves to shop for clothes, read "Gossip Girl" books, and watch "Desparate Housewives" on TV. Nothing out of sync here.

They don't do more homework. They don't start reading at 3. In fact, they don't start school till age 7--a year later than most U.S. kids. TV and video games aren't banned.

But kids play more. And kids read more. When a baby is born, her parents get a gift pack that includes a child's picture book. Libraries are in shopping malls. If you can't get to the mall, a book bus will come to your remote area.

And kids become independent at an earlier age. The Finns don't hover over their children. Kids walk to school in near darkness. Pick their own lunch. No internet filter in the school library.

And kids are taught at the youngest age possible to put on their own skates and skiis. Obviously this indicates that kids are outdoors playing and moving, even in cold winter weather.

What's the message for us? Kids need more playing, reading, and moving. And we need to foster more independence.

Tomorrow: Find out what the Finnish schools are like and how teachers teach.

MaryJo

P.S. Of course, Brain Gym involves playing and moving and certainly helps with making reading easier. Learn a couple of Brain Gym exercises that you can use immediately. Be sure to download the 17-page handout first.