Comments on: Tom Friedman on Innovation and National Lab Day

By: rebecca_taylor_cccblog

rebecca_taylor_cccblog — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:18:49 +0000

Tom,
Take a look at Austin Texas as a proof to your thesis that we need more innovation once again in order to grow the country's economy. Austin has lost a few jobs, but nowhere near the number elsewhere in the state or country. A big reason for that is the large number of startups that are created here each year (even last year). That spark of creativity and innovation is everywhere here, and has been for at least 25 years. That's the other part of your thesis – this stuff doesn't happen in a year, and so we need to get busy teaching our young ones how to run a business, and to have the courage and confidence to do so.
Thank you for pushing the conversation.
Rebecca Taylor
Austin, Texas

By: Get involved with National Lab Day | insideHPC.com

Get involved with National Lab Day | insideHPC.com — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:34:09 +0000

[...] picked up a pointer to the National Lab Day web site from the Computing Community Consoritum blog this week We now have an opportunity to bring hands-on, tinkering-based learning to a new level in the United [...]

By: chrisfarrell

chrisfarrell — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:12:03 +0000

Do we need ‘millions of American kids or just geniuses’? I don’t know, and neither does Tom Friedman. Instead of opinion lets look at evidence. Recent knowledge, based on a breakthrough in Economics (a solution to its quality change problem) identifies the long sought connection between R&D and economic growth to be a four-link chain starting with spending on D (of R&D) and ending at GDP. And the money spent on D goes mainly to a small quota of very well educated engineers. Whatever makes them numerous and effective: that is what the evidence points to. Study it at www.techmatt.com

By: ronguerriero

ronguerriero — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:06:35 +0000

Olin College of Engineering (Needham MA) inspires young people by presenting engineering via a hands-on, project based approach. And, using innovative teaching methods that generate interest and excitement in the classroom. Many of our students have had experience with STEM-related competitive activities (e.g. FIRST) and, thus, Olin is the next step up the project food chain.
We've conducted enough programs in the K-12 environment to tell us that the design thinking and entrepreneurial thinking we use to design Olin's curriculum works in K-12.
We are already collaborating with faculty from other engineering schools about how to create innovative engineering curriculum and teaching methods.
I believe Olin can be a model for how to integrate engineering, science and entrepreneurship into K-12 curriculum.
RG