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W E L C O M E !
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* * * PRE-ENGINEERING EDUCATION * * *
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Related Resources are Right
Here
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| HEROES of ENGINEERING EDUCATION
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Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert is a mathematician, one of the early pioneers of Artificial Intelligence and internationally
recognized as the seminal thinker about how computers can change learning.
Born and educated in South Africa, where he participated actively in the anti-apartheid movement, Papert
pursued mathematical research at the universities of Cambridge and Paris from 1954-58.
He worked with Jean Piaget at the University of Geneva from 1959-63 and it was this collaboration that led him to consider
using mathematics in the service of understanding how children think and learn.
Papert's contributions go beyond the field of education; he is co founder with Marvin
Minsky of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT and a founding faculty member of the MIT Media Lab,
where he continues to work. In 1985 he was one of the founders of the Media Arts and
Sciences Program and in 1988 he was named LEGO Professor of Learning Research,
a chair created for him.
But it is for his achievements in the realm of children and learning that NEEDS recognizes him as a hero of pre-education engineering.
He frequently speaks at meetings of school boards, School Board Associations, academic conferences and
other gatherings concerned with the future of schooling. Dr. Papert is the inventor of the Logo computer language, the first and most important effort to give children control over new technology.
He is the author of The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap (1996); Mindstorms: Children Computers and Powerful Ideas (1980) and
The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer (1992) as well as numerous articles about mathematics,
education, learning and thinking. His work on education has been recognized by many awards including
The Computerword Smithsonian Award; The Marconi International Fellowship Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Software Publishers Association.
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Dean Kamen
Dean Kamen is an inventor, an entrepreneur and a tireless advocate for science and technology.
A decade ago Dean founded FIRST
(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), and ever since has remained its driving force.
FIRST motivates young people to want to learn about science and technology.
Kamen
has personally recruited scores of the top leaders of American industry, education and government in this effort.
As a result, each of the past three national championships of the FIRST robotics competition,
which teams up professional engineers with high school students from across the country,
has set a new record as the largest non-Disney event ever held at Walt Disney WorldÕs Epcot Center.
In addition to his mastery of science and technology, he has received significant public recognition
for his determination on behalf of science and engineering. In addition to the many awards he has won,
he has been labeled by Smithsonian Magazine as "the Pied Piper of Technology"
and profiled by the New York Times as "A New Kind of Hero for American Youth".
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Terri Morse
In 1992, to emphasize the key role of teamwork and interface with industry in the engineering educational process,
the Society of Women Engineers launched a new National Student Section Competition sponsored
by the Boeing Company called "Team Tech". Terri Morse started this program.
She is the corporate director of technical affiliations, Boeing World Headquarters,
and is on the advisory board of Extraordinary Women Engineers Project,
at www.engineeringwomen.org,
a site that recognizes women engineers that have "changed the world".
Morse herself would be an excellent candidate, and for this NEEDS cites her as a prominent,
contemporary woman hero of Pre-Engineering Education.
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Ole Kirk Christiansen
Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891-1958) was a master carpenter in the village of Billund, Denmark. His motto was "only the best is good enough" .
During the Great Depression he created wooden toys that he named "LEGO," from the Danish "leg godt", which means to "play well." It is both the name and the nature of LEGO; it just happensthat
lego means "I put together" in Latin.
Christiansen worked long and hard every night to build his company. He never skimped on quality.
By 1949, the company had produced 200 different plastic and wooden toys.
Lego toys were first sold in the U.S. in 1961. Voted "toy of the century" by Fortune magazine,
the interlocking plastic continues to be a celebration of creative play
and imagination that Albert Einstein said was "more important than knowledge."
With Ole Kirk's grandson, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen as CEO,
the company continues to help children build imagination throughout the world.
Lego today has sold over $1.5 billion in 130 countries."Children are our role models," Kristiansen said.
"They embrace discovery and wonder. They are natural learners.
These are precious qualities that should be nurtured and stimulated throughout our lives."
The original creator of LEGO and his legacy: definitely a hero of pre-engineering education.
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| CLUES
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Clues
CLUE #3: 400 of the toys sold in 90 minutes the day it was first introduced in a department store in 1945.
CLUE #4: His wife was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of fame in 2001; he was not.
CLUE #5: To date, more than a quarter billion of these toys have been sold worldwide.
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