Written by David Janosz Jr., ‘Engineers Decide’ was designed to inspire and educate future engineers and children who have a curiosity about the engineered items they encounter everyday. The first of its kind, the book tackles subject matter that has, to date, never been published in an interactive electronic format. It is built [...]]]>

Written by David Janosz Jr., ‘Engineers Decide’ was designed to inspire and educate future engineers and children who have a curiosity about the engineered items they encounter everyday. The first of its kind, the book tackles subject matter that has, to date, never been published in an interactive electronic format. It is built with interactive multimedia and multi-touch tools available through iBooks Author and is exclusively “Made for iBooks,” Apple’s leading eBook platform.

For Immediate Release

Frederick, MD – In 2008, author and educator David Janosz began to search for picture books to read to his oldest son, and noticed a discrepancy in the works available.

“I noticed that there were a large number of books available about people working in a limited few professions like fire fighters, artists, athletes and celebrities, rather than books about more prevalent occupations,” Janosz says.

Further, the author could find no books related to engineering, one of the world’s most popular professions.

With the release of ‘Engineers Decide’, an interactive iBook available for free through March 31, 2014 in 51 countries supported by iBooks, Janosz hopes to fill the gap in the market.

“I wrote and published ‘Engineers Decide’ because I want every young person to be able to envision himself or herself doing engineering,” he says. “I know that most will not become engineers, but too many children never even see the possibility.”

Ideal for parents or teachers with children ages five through ten, ‘Engineers Decide’ explains that engineering isn’t about “things” but about individuals, inspired to bring forth the discoveries that will change our world. By instilling the joy of designing the future – whether as part of a team or working solo – ‘Engineers Decide’ ignites children’s curiosity to the wonders of applying their imagination to meet fresh challenges.

Synopsis:

Awaken the young engineer within your student or child! Ideal for ages five through ten, Engineers Decide explains that engineering isn’t about “things” but about individuals, inspired to bring forth the discoveries that will change our world. By instilling the joy of designing the future – whether as part of a team or working solo – Engineers Decide ignites children’s curiosity to the wonders of applying their imagination to meet fresh challenges. Engineers deciding upon solutions for product development, as well as all sorts of inventions familiar to children, are described simply and depicted with colorful artwork. And photos show children actively participating in the adventure of discovering next-generation technology. Filled with interactive graphics and videos, Engineers Decide stirs tomorrow’s engineers to realize their potential by exploring this exciting field.

Janosz employed his own decades of experience as an educator while creating the book.

“We used colorful, vibrant artwork and simple, effective language. Photos show children actively participating in the adventure of discovering next-generation technology,” he says. “Further, the iBook is filled with interactive graphics, videos, and a drawing scratchpad. It’s truly about exploration, not just teaching.”

‘Engineers Decide’ is available now and can be downloaded from the iBooks Store on an iPad or OSX Mavericks. The iBook is free through March 31, 2014 in 51 countries supported by iBooks.

To download the iBook, visit: http://tinyurl.com/engineersdecide

The trailer video for the book can be viewed here:

About the Author:

David A. Janosz, Jr. is an educator with eighteen years experience designing and delivering STEM education programs nationally and internationally with a focus on technology and engineering topics. He resides in Maywood, NJ, is married and a father of three young children.

Diana Chelaru provided original artwork to serve as the primary illustrations for Engineers Decide. Ms. Chelaru is an artist from Nyack, NY.

Teach Ingenuity Concepts LLC is a small business that focuses on publishing and consulting related to technology and engineering education and STEM for grade levels Pre-K through twelve.

Contact: David Janosz / dave@teachingenuity.com

I originally wrote the book in 2008, which is about the time my oldest child was old enough [...]]]> I wrote Engineers Decide because I want every young person to be able to envision himself or herself doing engineering. I know that most will not become engineers, but too many children never even see the possibility.

I originally wrote the book in 2008, which is about the time my oldest child was old enough to have picture books read to him. Immediately, I noticed a large disparity between the number of books that are available about people that work in a limited few professions such as firefighters, artists, and athletes, and those that were about more prevalent professions. At that time, I found no children’s books related to engineering, one of the world’s most popular professions. Since that time, thankfully, a few self-published titles have emerged, such as Engineering the ABC’s written by my friend Patty O’Brien Novak.

So, I set out and made dozens of notes about things that engineers do. I went on to note ideas that put those things into some context that I thought children could understand and relate to. For example, a thought about engineers that work on machines became a page about engineers that work on machines that make something that is fun and familiar to all children such as crayons.

Upon completing the original manuscript, I put a package together and sent a proposal to dozens of publishers. I received but one response to say that the idea had merit, but the book just wasn’t right for their company. Now that the book was nowhere other than in a few dozen publisher’s slush piles, I was more than discouraged. But, in January 2012 things started to look positive again when I learned of Apple’s release of free iBooks Author software. Since I have some background in design and page layout software, I figured I might be able to pull off self-publishing the title without having to put out over ten-thousand dollars to fund a print run. I was also very intrigued by the fact that the iBooks format offered interactive multimedia features.

I went ahead and contacted the artist that I had hired to do some drawings for my first publishing attempt, Diana Chelaru. Diana made the drawings into beautifully colored panels while I searched online stock photo and video databases for the multimedia elements. With a few hundred hours invested into the endeavor, my dream became reality when the iBook was released in the iBookstore on July 17, 2013.

Here is the original description:
Awaken the young engineer within your student or child! Ideal for ages five through ten, Engineers Decide explains that engineering isn’t about “things” but about individuals, inspired to bring forth the discoveries that will change our world. By instilling the joy of designing the future – whether as part of a team or working solo – Engineers Decide ignites children’s curiosity to the wonders of applying their imagination to meet fresh challenges. Engineers deciding upon solutions for product development, as well as all sorts of inventions familiar to children, are described simply and depicted with colorful artwork. And photos show children actively participating in the adventure of discovering next-generation technology. Filled with interactive graphics and videos, Engineers Decide stirs tomorrow’s engineers to realize their potential by exploring this exciting field.

Thus far, Engineers Decide is only available as an iBook for the iPad. Please use this link to download from the iBookstore.

If you represent a group of educators or an engineering professional society, I would be happy to work with you on a free promotional offer for your school or group. Please feel free to contact me at dave@teachingenuity.com with regard to that or any feedback you may have about the book.

This requires employees who can think multi-dimensionally, seeing the relationships [...]]]> The most important change to hit the business world in the last few decades has been the need to be more broad thinking in one’s approach to problem solving. Business has become global, much more complex and interconnected…. and solutions to problems should reflect this.

This requires employees who can think multi-dimensionally, seeing the relationships between various aspects of a problem; and knowing how to blend and integrate these constraints together into an acceptable solution. Schools, and their prescribed daily 50 minute blasts of knowledge we call subjects, are not now able to educate students in the kind of multi-dimensional thinking the business world finds most desirable. This mismatch is becoming more apparent with every graduating class. The cost of remedial education for incoming new hires is increasing for many companies, and in some becoming terribly expensive. There is great room for change and rejuvenation in the modern school curriculum.

Technology education is the best available discipline toward achieving a multi-dimensional approach to problem solving. Technology education personifies how students really learn, actually appealing more to students than the traditional forms of education; and in complete agreement with recent brain-based research findings that recommend daily doses of open-ended, contextual problem solving exercises. It is just what is needed to foster a school-to-work mindset, and assure global competitiveness down the road.

Why specifically does technology education appeal to the business world? Here are a few key reasons:

Team Learning Environments

To solve problems in a multi-dimensional and integrated fashion in the business world requires cooperation and coordination among a number of experts, working on project teams. Very seldom will the world find a “lone wolf” expert involved in the implementation of a global enterprise. Single inventors may conceive of new products and processes, but interdisciplinary teams and teamwork are needed to bring them to the marketplace. Technology education students know how to work in teams, making the necessary compromises and tradeoffs, much like engineers and project managers do. It is fine to have outstanding intellect, but it will be more important have both intellect and be a team player. Performing solo for a while is fine, but the orchestra is what will get the job done.

Discipline, Discipline, Discipline

Technology education is a highly structured approach to using data, information, knowledge, and technology to solve problems for society. It is scientifically based, and hence reproducible. It is not a fad or trend. There is a large body of national experience to support the importance and efficacy of technology education. In fact, technology education is a valid model for problem solving in all areas, whether technical or not. It is a disciplined inquiry best suited to solving unstructured problems-just like the kind most likely to be found on the job.

Content and Process

Science is often seen as the preferred subject of study for students regarding matters technological. Critics have argued that science has both process and content and technology education has only process. This is incorrect. The story of humanity’s progress is the story of technology application. Humans were technologists and engineers long before they were scientists. The pyramids, the medieval cathedrals, and the Roman aqueducts were built centuries before the laws of science were codified in the 15th/16th centuries.

Science is about discovery and technology education is about application. Science has content in its various subject matter like chemistry, physics, material science…etc; and of course it has the scientific process of hypothesis and synthesis through experimentation. Technology education has for its content all the subjects (and more) that students study. It has science, history, social studies, mathematics, politics, government, the environment….etc; and it has a scientific approach in its process of synthesizing a resolution or compromise between these competing constraints. It mirrors engineering. Science is an introvert to the world of application. Technology education, the extrovert, teaches students how to apply what they have learned, and solve problems for society right now. It is contextual problem solving extraordinaire. The world of business is about application, and problem solving in support of customer needs…..even if the science underlying exactly why applications work is not yet completely understood.

The Capitalist System

Technology education is a passion play for the study of American capitalism. Today’s economy is driven by application of technology. Economists estimate that over 60% of the annual growth in the Nation’s gross national product is due to technological advances. Science is the raw material for technological advances. It is one of the subject components a technology education student would use to study the history of technological advances and determine how technology could be used to solve a critical need in society. It shows students how new products and services start out as ideas and concepts and culminate with an improved standard of living. It also mirrors the invention process. Patents are the driving force for protecting the unique and novel techniques made possible by the judicious application of technology….. or industrial know-how.

Making Connections

Because of the multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary nature of technology education and the need to use higher order thinking skills, technology education students naturally look for linkages and connections between subject fields and technology areas. This makes them ideal strategists and planners for companies, able to appreciate the synergies and trends on the horizon. Many high tech companies have introduced new executive positions within their corporations like the title of Vice President of Technology, to draw emphasis to the importance of application in their never ending quest to produce products and services for their customers. The truly great companies know that the key to sustained long- term success lies in their ability to work at the interfaces between new technologies and trends, and from these confluences develop products and services before their competitors. They want employees who can see the potential connections between emerging fields and technologies. They want employees who can think both deep and broad. Technology education prepares students for this.

Life-long Learning

Technology education promotes self-learning because it teaches students to ask the necessary questions at the outset of a problem solving challenge. Technology education students learn how to ask the quality questions that lead to high quality solutions. In their world (and in the business world) the best answer to a problem is the one that is the most complete answer-the one that takes as much relevant information in and mediates a blended solution of the concerns and constraints.

This question-asking paradigm is a key step in an employee’s process of life-long learning. Companies highly value employees ingrained with a discipline and zest for life-long learning. The companies and employees who will survive the daily rigors of global competition are the ones who know how to learn, un-learn, and re-learn in the most rapid and efficient manner.

The workplace is no longer simply about access to material resources and high employee I.Q. It’s about being able to do something really unique in the marketplace with the same raw resources and intellectual horsepower as the next company. Technology education is a testing ground for students to learn how to think and act creatively…..accessing, evaluating, and applying all the information they have compiled across their studies. And I might add most emphatically…..those who can learn most effectively are also those who can teach what they have learned (both process and content) to other co-workers. School and work are becoming indistinguishable. A successful business leader spends as much time doing his/her own work as teaching others how to do theirs.

***

Technology education is valuable preparation for the business world. It is the discipline of unstructured problem solving, much like the conditions found every day around the world in globally competitive companies.

Too often, I have seen technology education belittled by parents, teachers, and administrators as a “blue collar”, “industrial arts” type of activity. This stigma is most unfortunate, and terribly wrong. Technology has radically changed every aspect of our civilization from the factory floor to the arts. Our standard of living is directly dependent upon our judicious application of technology. Try watching a modern stage play, movie, or concert without the benefit of current technology.

In the intense technological world we are born into, how can we not afford to elevate this important discipline to a place of prominence in the curricula, making it a core skill for all students, showing them in no uncertain terms the direct relevance of school-to-work?

Technology is the indisputable agent of change in our society, and technology education students learn the responsibility of minimizing the impacts of its introduction. What better example and goal could we set for our future leaders?

It’s not about whether we teach technology education and not teach something else. It’s about changing the way we teach; and educate tomorrow’s teachers. Technology education draws its very strength from being a discipline that builds bridges between things…i.e. subjects. It gains strength from having as many topical areas (subjects) as possible, both technical and non technical in nature, to draw from.

About 140 years ago as the industrial revolution began to take hold in our Nation, it radically changed the way schools were organized. We left the one-room schoolhouse of an agrarian age behind to transform into a mechanistic, piecemeal approach to school-a mirror image of the then factory workplace. Now with the information age and global competition upon us, our factories and manufacturing facilities have turned to integrating their operations. We hear such terms as concurrent engineering, flexible manufacturing, and computer integrated manufacturing. The new emphasis is on the whole product, not just its individual parts. And with this fundamental change, so must the emphasis in our schools be on the whole educational experience, not just its subjects. Metaphorically, we are returning to a new one-room schoolhouse experience, both in school and on-the-job. Technology education is a jump-start in this direction. It is a weathervane for the future, and the critical skill set for continuous employment in a globally competitive world.

A version of this article appeared in the October 2001 edition of The Technology Teacher published by the ITEEA.

I don’t take lightly how the president interwove these themes with education and our schools. I especially noted this reference to the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): “And over the next [...]]]> About the first thirty minutes of President Obama’s State of the Union Speech tonight was dedicated to innovation, education, and infrastructure.

I don’t take lightly how the president interwove these themes with education and our schools.  I especially noted this reference to the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM):  “And over the next ten years, with so many Baby Boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.”

I admire the goal; it’s a very laudable one. However, so many people do not yet realize the power of the two middle parts of the STEM acronym and the value added to a student’s experience when they study them along with mathematics and science.  Though they are hard to find and it may not be true in every school, most schools math and science departments are staffed with people that are very capable of teaching those subjects. What we do not have is enough people to teach our students about technology, engineering, and ingenuity.

Also prominent in this first segment of the speech were themes of entrepreneurship, manufacturing, how technology has revolutionized our lives, global competition, creativity and imagination, clean energy, infrastructure, and invention.  Our students need to know about these things too, but there is really no time left in their math and science classes to learn something meaningful about these other important topics.

The president also made reference to Sputnik and how it led us to transform our education system and research and development.

If we’re going to reinvent ourselves and reinvent our nation, we cannot do it with the same education system that came out of the post-Sputnik era.  While giving our kids more experiences in learning math and science were great things to come out of that era, we need to build on that for the future. Our education system needs more in the way of instruction in Technology and Engineering, which is core to developing ingenuity of our young people.

Here where I live in New Jersey, we have set a strong foundation for these studies.  We’ve also engaged engineers, architects, industrial designers, and other professionals and showed them a path to sharing their knowledge and experience with children. Let’s build on that and truly reinvent education with study of Technology and Engineering at the core.

During Edison’s era, he made innovation happen in a unique way for that time. Having people of [...]]]> I’m writing this post for the first time from my new iPad. This device and Harry Roman’s post about Edison and R&D got me thinking about the process of invention and how its changed over the past century.

During Edison’s era, he made innovation happen in a unique way for that time. Having people of various backgrounds, experience, and expertise became the standard for research and development in industry and you can see the evidence of that in the iPad. While how exactly this product was developed and by whom remains an industry secret and a mystery to most all of us, one thing is certain: I imagine that hundreds of people had a hand in it’s development.

I imagine that the following types of people were involved in creating the iPad:

– Industrial Designers

– Engineers

– Marketing Professionals

– Manufacturers

– Software Developers

– Other industry professionals that had experience with original devices that failed in the market (reminder: iPad wasn’t the first of this concept)

Our young people need to learn about ingenuity is how it is applied by teams regardless of scale or market consciousness of a project. They need first hand experience being a team member as well as a team leader so they can begin to understand the dynamics of team work.

One interesting thing to me is how the credit for innovative products gets passed by the public. People seem to credit Edison alone for the invention of the incandescent light bulb. Yet, today the “inventor” of the iPad is Apple. I wonder if over time we’ll remember the companies as the inventors of things rather than the individuals the way we used to.