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Real “American Idols”

janoszd — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 12:27:14 +0000

Most Americans can name and recognize six American Idol television show winners before they could these six individuals:

Mark Zuckerberg

Sergey Brin

Larry Page

Steve Chen

Chad Hurley

Jawed Karim

What do these thirty-something men have in common? They invented the ways we are living our lives online. Zuckerberg founded Facebook, Brin and Page founded Google, and Chen, Hurley, and Karim invented YouTube. What else do they have in common? They all brought these things into our consciousness based originally on projects they developed relatively early in their lives…a graduate school project…a side project while an undergrad…in a garage with others they met at one of their first jobs or in college.

What’s wrong with this picture? There’s not a woman, an African American, nor a Hispanic American among them.

Another thing these guys have in common is that they were all within the past few years sitting in a public high school somewhere in the United States receiving an education. I wonder what they would each say about how their school experience helped them in their career endeavors. I understand that Chad Hurley was involved in the Technology Student Association when he was in high school. I’m not trying to suggest that his involvement in TSA alone was the key to his success, yet one would have to admit that that the goals of Technology Education and TSA are closely aligned to the development of students’ ingenuity.

I also should not suggest that young people idolize these individuals. Just as we shouldn’t teach young people to idolize professional athletes, we shouldn’t teach them to idolize anyone in the media as everyone has their faults including these people I’m sure. But, if we teach young people to idolize anything, let’s make it the ideals of ingenuity, and let’s teach them the lessons of how these relatively young people were able to bring their ideas to the forefront and literally change the world.

The FemGineers

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:09:15 +0000

At Heritage Middle School in Livingston NJ, the concept of the “FemGineers”, the all female design and engineering team happened by accident: Two sign up lists were placed on a lab table, one for the Technology Student Association, the other for the National Engineers’ Week Future City Competition. Students signed up during the day in their technology education class and at the end of the day I reviewed the lists. I found that on the Future City sign up sheet, all but one student were female. I approached the eighth grade boy and asked him if he did what he meant to do. Being an eighth grade boy, he quickly switched to the TSA team.

The first meeting of the Future City team was held and before long, nine eighth graders realized “We’re all girls.” They quickly embraced the concept, choosing a name and even designing a logo. The first year, they competed they earned a seventh place finish and an honorable mention at the New Jersey Regional. The concept of the FemGineers was off the ground. Building and district administration really supported the concept. They talked it up at parent meetings and student activity fairs.

These young ladies had found a new home: the technology education lab. They wasted no time in telling me that the room reminded them of “grandpa’s basement”…dirty, machines everywhere, nothing to make you feel welcome. They suggested as a start that they could repaint the door with a technology related mural. They did so, and added a splash of color to an otherwise monotone room.

The next year, the club grew to more than 30 girls. They again competed in the Future City challenge and placed 2nd with other honorable mentions. These girls too said that they would never have “just wandered in” to the technology lab if they did not have a friend who told them about it. When I asked what we should do, again, they wanted to paint murals on the walls, which they did, but they had another novel idea: “The Innovation Station”. They wanted to design an area that you could see from the door that would invite people into the room. At that time, there was simply drill presses and scroll saws. The Innovation Station would have couches, ottomans, beanbag chairs and large tables that would have dry erase surfaces so you could draw ideas out in an innovative setting.

Through the use of student input and a suspension of what I thought I knew about gender equity, we were able to create an innovative, creative environment that is student focused and gender neutral. It is about so much more than simply painting it pink.

You can read more about the FemGineers at:

Building Utopia: You Go Girl!

We Built This City

FemGineers Video

No Gadget Too Complicated

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:35:23 +0000

In July 2009, four students from High Point Regional High School earned first place in the United States at the Technology Student Association (TSA) National Conference in Denver for their invention to prevent the formation of bed sores in hospital patients. While the next step taken most student groups after competitions is to store the project in a classroom or bedroom closet, these four students were challenged to take their innovation and work towards a United States patent application.

When they returned in September, the students embarked on a year long process to organize, research, and dedicate the time necessary to pursue this application. Primary responsibilities included frequent fund-raising, daily documentation of new developments, thorough searches through Google patents, the formation of a LLC called No Gadget Too Complicated, the opening of bank accounts, and the scheduling of several meetings with local and state officials who the students thought could help them with their pursuits. These discussions included face to face meetings with local hospital officials, local elected officials, bed sore patients, and local business owners. Frequent Skype calls with their consultant, a venture capitalist and their judge from the TSA Conference in Denver, also took place.

With help from a New Jersey state Senator, Steven Oroho, the students connected with a patent attorney, Michael Doherty, also a state Senator, who worked with them to file the official patent application in March 2010. The students have signed a Rights of First Agreement with Covidien, a medical company in Massachusetts who provided the final funding and support to secure the costs of the patent attorney. The students presented at the 2010 TSA National Conference in Baltimore about their experience, at the New Jersey Technology Council Expo in April 2010, and will be featured on NJEA’s Classroom Close-up this spring. They continue to work on their innovation today as they take the steps necessary to scale up the marketing and scope of their design.

The importance of intellectual property law and its role in our society is an important lesson as we try to develop the ingenuity of our youth. There is no better way to learn a process such as this than to actually experience it first hand. The students have also learned important lessons about financing and capital, the legal aspects of starting a business, and research and development, all of which should be taught more directly in our schools.

You can read more about the student team in this NJ Herald article.