44 | August 12-October 13

GVo-tech. Home ec. DT. Depending on where you're from, these hands-on classes might be mandatory parts

of the curriculum or classes for non-college-bound students. In Shanghai, few international schools offer such programs. But those that do tell us how they open students’ minds by get-ting their hands a little dirty.

Julia Melvin, head of Design and Tech-nology (DT) at Shanghai Rego International School (SRIS), explains that DT is a British pro-gram that began during the Industrial Revolution to prepare students for work. She says the cours-es have changed dramati-cally since the days when “girls made scones and boys made things out of metal.” DT syllabi have followed the move-ments of time, from the craft emphasis of William Morris to a 1950s focus on home eco-nomics, woodworking and engineering to the technology-influenced design of the 1990s. The DT classes at SRIS, which are taught to stu-dents from years 7-13, focus on graphic design and material studies. Melvin says the class trains SRIS students to work around a design brief and gives them “permission to create.”

DT at Yew Chung International School (YCIS) is taught by Kevin McHale. His pro-gram, which has roughly 360 students, in-cludes lessons in hand drawing, computer drawing, product data collection, operating

hand tools and machines, and computer-aided manufacturing in wood, metal and plastic. “The benefit of DT is that it brings in lessons from so many other subjects,” McHale explains. Sci-ence and math are the two obvious influences, but DT classes also draw on English, art, geog-raphy, business and economics. “We allow the students to use all of the skills they gain from all of their teachers and introduce them to flex-ible learning, from research skills to teamwork

to independent action in what they want to design and make.”

Gary Serbent teaches an Americanized version of DT at the Livingston Amer-ica n School ( L A S) . His “Introduction to Engineer-

ing” class is modeled after material from Proj-ect Lead the Way, a U.S. provider of science, technology, engineering and math curricula. “Livingston students are historically strong in math and science, and we wanted to give them an extra way to use their skills,” Serbent says. The class teaches lessons in analysis, feasibil-ity, material performance and structural rein-forcement. Students construct models to test engineering principles. With a catapult design, they study accuracy and trajectory, with a bal-loon rocket, friction and thrust, and with a mousetrap car, angular momentum. Serbent notices a dramatic change when lessons move from lectures to building: “Once materials come out, the energy level in the class goes up.

I wouldn’t be able to teach engineering at this level without the hands-on labs.” The class re-cently finished its inaugural semester at LAS with eight students. LAS plans to extend it to a full-year course next year.

Left-side and right-side brain functions come together in these classes. Serbent notes that his engineering course differs from math and science courses in that its questions have no single answer. “Engineering is a process used to solve problems, and it requires think-ing creatively.” Melvin says that DT teaches students to analyze data and study the molecu-lar structure of materials, in addition to think-ing creatively. The complex set of skills needed to master these lessons is not easy. McHale explains, “Some students cannot design on pa-per but have excellent hand-eye coordination skills and produce high-quality products in the workshop. Conversely, some students have superb design skills and produce high-quality 3-D rendered work, but they cannot match this with their manufacturing skills.”

All three programs use Shanghai as a teaching tool. YCIS students have taken field trips to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. SRIS students incorporated research from a field trip to the former French Concession into a Shanghai Art Deco stor-age box project, and visited a local printing company where they saw the large Heidelberg presses and smelled the ink firsthand. Livings-ton uses a video of the Shanghai World Finan-cial Center and a field trip to the Lupu Bridge to discuss engineering. “It’s good to have some of the world’s biggest and longest close by to show students real-world applications,” says Serbent.

With all the benefits conferred, why don’t more local schools offer these courses? One explanation is that international schools tend to focus on academia, to the exclusion of vocational studies. Mark Angus, the principal of the British International School, Nanxiang, Shanghai suggests, “In my case, it is primar-ily because we do not, at present, have the numbers of students interested in studying DT to warrant a full-time teaching post,” he says. “You generally need to find a DT teacher who can double up as perhaps an art or ICT (information and communications technol-ogy) teacher as well, but such people are not easy to come by anywhere, let alone here.” q Clare Jacobson

Hands On ShopShanghai students learn design through practice

EDUCATION

Students learn valuable skills in DT class

Once materials come out, the energy level in the class goes up