924

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 59, NO.

6 , JUNE 1971

The Man-Made World:A Trend in Education

EDWARDE.DAVID, JR.,
FELLOW, IEEE, AND

JOHN G. TRUXAL, FELLOW,

IEEE

Invited Paper

Abstract-The Man-Made World is a secondary school course developed by the Engineering Concepts Curriculum Project (ECCP) with NSF support over the past five years. The goal is an introduction to technological literacy: an undemanding of the concepts underlying modern technology in order to appreciate the characteristics, capabilities, and limitations of that technology, especially as it interfaces with people and social institutions. The course has also been adapted for college offering.

INTRODUCTION DUCATION today is suffering from a disciplinary hangover. This statement, heard widely in one form or another,refers to the traditional divisions of education into physicalsciences,lifesciences,social sciences, humanities, arts,and their usual subdivisions. These distinctions are leftovers from the time of education Early History of ECCP During the spring of 1964 a small group of engineersand for the few who were to fill a narrow and select spectrum of society. Universal education must prepare students for a high school science teachers held several meetings at Bell much broader variety of roles, and must do so while main- Telephone Laboratories to consider the possibilityof a taining a mutually shared culture. Over the years, there have high school (1 1th and 12th grade) laboratory science course stimubeen attempts at comprehensive and interdisciplinary based on engineering concepts. The discussions were education for such purposes, but these have generally fallenlated by the Commission on Engineering Education (CEE). These early discussions took place in the twilight of the by the waysidebecause their values proved transient or superficial. Perhaps the central question in education today post-Sputnik era. The Vietnam conflict wasjust beginning is howand what to teach in a society where universal educa- to attract nationwide attention, the nation faced its social problems with the confidence that a national commitment tion to college and beyond is becominga reality. There is probably no universal answer to this pervasive wouldyieldsignificant and rapid results, and there was question. Students are individuals, and pluralism in their negligible interest in environmental and ecological probeducation is a necessity. However, one broadly applicable lems. In spite of the post-Sputnik emphasis on science educaanswer seems to liein the problem-solving approach to education. This technique approaches the substance of a tion and the national curriculum efforts predating Sputnik, subject through problems which can be solved by learning there were alarming signs. Interest in science seemed to be substantive material. For example, predicting the course waning in secondary schools. Enrollment in physics was of an epidemic requireslearning how to formulate and use falling off at almost 2 percent per year (that is, from 26 to an appropriate model involving fundamental concepts of 24 to 22 percent, and so on). College interest in engineering more slowly than the college student stability. The problem-solving approach moves from the was rising significantly specific to the general and so fulfills a universal in education. population in spite of the accelerating advance of technolIn currently fashionable terms relevance can be easily ogy and the widespread interest in the space program. This diminishing interest in science seemed particularly demonstrated if problems are chosen wisely. Also, the approach is open-ended since new introductory problems can disturbing to the group. The nation was obviously moving be substituted for dated ones, and problems from a variety rapidly into an age of technology. It was not diflicult to of disciplines can serve to illustrate the breadth of basic foresee a period when the digital computer would influence the national, social, concepts. These features make the problem-solving ap- almost every facet of citizens life, when political, and economic decisionswouldinvolve strong proach to education an important trend. How is this notion of education different from the technological considerations. Yet the United States was educating its young people with no understanding of the characteristics, capabilities, and limitations of technology. Manuscript received January 6, 1971 ; revised February 17,1971. This The group was convinced that continuation of this trend work received support from the National Science Foundation. E. E. David, Jr., is Science Advisorto the President, the White House, could only lead to a profound public misunderstanding and Washington, D. C. distrust of technology. J. G. Truxal is with the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Motivated by these concerns, CEE submitted a proposal N. Y. 1 1 2 0 1 .

vocational approach? It is distinguished by not aiming at developing skillsper se, as vocational education does, but rather aims at communicating general concepts and principles which are much broader than the problems used to introduce them. Indeed the Engineering Concepts Cumculum Project (ECCP) began with the desire to teach certain concepts useful to the thoughtful citizen living in a technological world. These concepts were not taught at the time in any widely available course, and the current version of the ECCP course, The Man-Made World, evolved from that desire, using problem-solving techniques. As such, it encompasses the essence of engineering a creative activity. as

DAVID AND TRUXAL : MAN-MADE WORLD TREND IN EDUCATION

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for a study program to investigate the possibility of course the constant stream of visitors, and by the emphasis on the a to counter this trend. need which was described by secondary school educators who participated for short periods of time. Phase 1 It was clear, however, that the ideas developed there The National Science Foundation made a small grant to should be tested a few high school students before further on CEE to make a study of such a curriculum development. In work was undertaken. Accordingly, five science teachers August of 1964, a group of ten people met in Cambridge, from New York City and the neighboring New Jerseyarea Mass., for four weeks ofdiscussion, argument, and consul- were invited to select three students each from their senior tation with a series ofvisitors. From this work there emerged classes. The entire group of five teachers and 15 students an outline of a projected secondary school course based on was taught many parts of the projected course in a sequence engineering concepts. of 12full Saturdays at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn To a great extent, this was an astonishing group to under- in the spring of 1965-the first offering of The Man-Made take secondary school curriculum study. There were David, World course. Pierce, Zajac, and Hagelbarger-all from Bell Telephone Five excellentteachers were selected.Each chose three of Laboratories. From engineering education were Truxal his best students. The principal instructor was Prof. E. J. and Angelo from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and Angelo, whohad justreceived the first award for outstandHuffman and Siebert from the Massachusetts Institute of ing teaching at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. Technology. A high school principal and exscience teacher, Angelos classes were supplemented by visits from most of Piel, and Schenberg, Director of Secondary Science in New the participants in the Cambridge study, with eachman disYork City, had the responsibility of keeping the group at cussing particular aspects hefound most interesting. As the least partially honest in terms of what could be taught at ECCP report on the trial course states, The response indithe secondary school level. cated that the proposed material was interesting, stimulatWith the exception of Piel and Schenberg, none of the ing and understandable at the high school level. ten had ever taught in the secondary schools-or indeed The trial course indicated very little, if anything, about ever givenmuch serious thought to any phase of precollege the teachability of the course at the secondary school level. education. Several ofthe group spent the monthbefore the It did, however, suggest that topics could be of interest to working session intensively reading secondary school phys- students. It also demonstrated the tremendous effort which ics and mathematics texts, becoming initially acquainted would be required to prepare suitable text and laboratory with PSSC, BSCS, SMSG, and other national curriculum materials. projects. The nature of the discussions that summer emphasized Phase 2 On the basis of these experiences, CEE received the first the open-mindedness and the groping for promising a p proaches. For example, there was extensiveargument over ECCP grant from the National Science Foundation. There the possibility of attempting to build a years course on a were two major activities: 1) A six-week course development at a summer worksequence of innovative small projects. The group recognized the tremendous potential of teaching through a series of shop in 1965. 2) Trial of the course in five high schools in New York, problems which would be open-ended-to challenge students of a wide range of capabilities, to motivate the stu- Connecticut, and New Jersey in the 1965-1966 school year dents to learn basic concepts, and toencourage the students in order to test the materials developed during the summer. For the summer course development effort, 27 people to develop original viewpoints. At the same time, the group realized that the success of such a course would depend were assembled at Tarrytown, N. Y., located just north of strongly on the competence of the teacher, that the program New York City. The makeup of the group was particularly could only betaught effectively by teachers who werethem- important, since this was the effort during which the basic selves creative and inspired innovators. The problems al- structure of The Man-Made World course was established and the guiding principles were setfor the selection ways associated with projects courses inengineering content. From the ranks of practicing engineers colleges convinced the group that the approach was just of technical not feasible,even though several participants suggested and scientists, there weresix representatives (four from projects particularly appropriate for high school students. Bell Laboratories and two from IBM). Engineering educaIn spite of such difficulties, the ten men developeda vari- tion provided nine participants (three from PIB and one ety of text and laboratorymaterials. They leftthe workshop each from MIT, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Colorado, and encouraged by the excitement generated by personal inter- Harvard Universities, and CEE). The other twelvewere actions, by the optimism and encouragement expressed by divided: ten active in secondary science teaching and two in secondary school administration. Of these ten, five were the teachers who would be offering course in 1965-1966. the Developments in the last five years strongly suggest a reconsideration the of this approach. Low-cost electronic kits arenow available. In the com- (For a complete list of all participants see Appendix 111.) puter field, the BASIC language and building blocks for modeling make it Thus, in contrast to the smaller Cambridge study of the possible for beginning students to model exceedingly complex and real systems. As computeravailabilityexpands i the n secondary schools, year before, the Tarrytown session was strongly influenced there willbe increased emphasis the useof such subsystem on simulations. by active teachers. The planners of the workshop recog-

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE m,JUNE

1971

nized that a major effort would have be placed on present- massive quantity of material. From this a text was seto ing the engineering concepts in terms understandable to lected for The Man-Made World course offered in the secondary school students and teachers. It was clear, even five schools the following academic year. The course was at that point, that thesuccess of the course would depend divided into three parts: 1) Logicand Computers;2) Meastrongly on whether it could be taught by individuals edu- surement and Models; 3) Choice and Control. Perhaps primarily because of the enthusiasm and compecated for more conventional programs in mathematics and tence of the five teachers, all of whom had been present at science (particularly physics). It was in this period that differential equations started to Tarrytown, the 1965-1966 course wassuccessfulwith a fade from the text. The goal of making the course dependent group of students who were unusually talented. In retroon first-year algebra only wasestablished, although this was spect, the text of that initial offering of a full-year course not achieved until the published, preliminaryedition of the was characterized by the following features. 1) There was several times as much material as approtext three years later. Also that summer, the basic structure of the laboratory work was determined, as approximately priate fora course. 2) The emphasis was on the engineering concepts, with half of the group concentrated on the development of exmotivation. periments. It was decided that the laboratory should be a little or no attention to student 3) The text was clearly written by a committee, with major elementin the program, that experiments should involve situations familiar to the students insofar as possi- great variations in style, level,and cdntent. 4) The laboratory workwasdecidedly spotty and inble, and that experiments should be appropriate to a fiveperiod-per-weekschedule, or one allowing six or seven volved equipment beyond the reach of a typical secondary school. periods. In other words, the course was still appropriate only for The philosophy which emerged from the intensive sixweek effort is summarized inthe first ECCP newsletter dis- outstanding teachers thoroughly imbued with the spirit of was still in a relatively uncotributed by the CEE in November 1965. That reportstates : the undertaking. The program ordinated state; the leading participants were still groping Basically the goal to acquaint students with the technical is for a clear vision. principles behindour modem world. Many educators believe that existingcourses in the life and physical sciences, however Phase 3 good, leave a notable gap between idealized laws of nature and Phase 3 started with a teacher training session and the devices,ssm, processes, and structures which populate ye s t course development programat Boulder, Colo., in the course is designed to iill t i gap. hs todays world. The new 1966. In the teacher education portion, 28 Spokesmen for the project point out that modem physicalsummer of science-physics and chemism-deals with the behavior of teachers from around the country were introduced to the as In the physical world, principallyit exists naturally. the mancourse and prepared to offer it during the following school made world,man shapes things as he wants them to thereby be, year. Concurrently, a major attempt was made to reduce hs enabling him to cope with nature. T i world deals directly with size and coverage of the text to a scope reasonably approprireality-with highways and structures, with water supply and ate toa one-year course. with air conditioning, with the telephone and television, autoThe major innovation at the Boulder summer institute mobilesandwashingmachines,andwithhearing aids and was the availability of Teletypewriter terminals tied to a heart pacemakers,as well as jet aircraft,space travel, nuclear GE time-shared computer. Several of the participants and power, and giant computers. This is the realm in which man the course development staff became exceedingly enthusiachieves ever greater control by developing tools that extend astic about the potential of computer experiments and his mind, s ne,and muscles. ess The principles behind these modern engineering marvels simulation studies appropriate to The Man-Made World course. In subsequent years this enthusiasm has led to the go beyond the province of physical science. To be sure, they musttakeintoaccountthecapabilitiesandlimitations of wide-spread ECCP experimentation with the utilization of Nature as disclosed by science. But, the fashioning of a new tool computing capability within the secondary school program. to meet a human goes further; it demands the need speaal and The 1966 summer program was followed by successful distinctive creative act of matching the physical possibilities trials of the revised course in the 1966-1967 academic year. necessary to underwith theneeds of man. Thus, it is frequently In 1967 an NSF-supported summer institute was heldat the take engineering research to uncover new principles and knowlUniversity of Colorado, Boulder, plus a small program at edge. O t n too, it is vital to leaven what is physically possible fe, the University of Rochester, Rochester, N. Y.In 1968 and withwhat is humanly desirable. Such acts of creation and 1969, the summer institute program expanded and several reconciliation are the essence of modem engineering. In the universities initiated cooperative and in-service programs words of Dr. Theodore von Karman, The Scientist explores with high schools. what is. The Engineer creates what not been. has Since we live in this man-made world, we must learn to Meanwhile course development proceeded to the point understand andmanage it. Many educators are convinced that where commercial publishers were approached to determine the high school student should be informed of the forces that interest. An advisory committee selected the Webster bring it about. Division of the McGraw-HillBook Company from the The intensesix-weekeffort at Tarrytown produced a proposals received, and the three-volume paperback pre-

DAVID A N D TRUXAL: MAN-MADE WORLD: TREND I EDUCATION N

927

liminary edition was published in the fall of 1968. A fourth dividuals who understand the ECCP goals. There are volume (the laboratory manual) was available at the same roughly 200 million people in the United States. If we each time, and the Teachers Manual was reproduced by ECCP accept responsibility for educating 500 OOO others, our headquarters. Revision ofthe text was initiated in the fall of project is assured of success. 1969, and the first hard-cover edition will be available early Current Status in 1971. During the 1970-1971 school year, The Man-Made Course Philosophy World course is being offered nearly 15 OOO students in to From the very beginning, the primary objective of the over 300 secondary schools. Enrollment so far has approject has been a contribution to the technological literacy proximately doubled each year, although the problem of of young people. The target population consists of those teacher training raises serious questions whether this rate of high school students planning some education beyond sec- change can be maintained in the next few years. In addition the course, or a closely related version, is ondary school, and those students who are not necessarily contemplating careers in science or engineering. It is this currently being offered to several thousand students in group which displays aversion to mathematics and science about 20 colleges [l I. This modification of the original procourses and among which is found the antitechnology senti- gram has taken three different forms: ment so evident today. 1) a freshman course for engineering students; Thus the goal of the course is to provide this group of 2) for liberal arts students, a course satisfying the students with a basic understanding of the characteristics, common science requirement ; capabilities, and limitations of modem technology. Poli3) a course for community college students in the Associtical, economic, and social decisionstoday are increasingly ate in Arts program. dependent on technology, whether that technology offers At the high school level, the past year has seen two deconstructive results or whether it is a basic contributor to to societal problems. As Congressman Daddario has empha- velopments which seem be of particular importance. The sizedinhiscall for technologyassessment, well over a first of these comes from the work of a dozen teachers in thousand bills each year inthe House of Representatives in- central-city schools in Newark, JerseyCity,Cleveland, and Philadelphia [2]. When the course is offered to undervolve strong technological considerations. Two recent developments emphasize the problem. The achieving students who may average less than 50 percent first is the growing focus on technology as the culpable attendance, teachers must develop the basic concepts in source of social problems-an attitude particularly strong terms of student projects rather than text presentations. among liberal arts students, but also familiar in the public Furthermore, since students are often not present two days such projects must be of one-period duration. press and in the halls ofCongress. Technology is blamed for in succession, constraints, the project has undertaken the more than 50 OOO cars abandoned last year on the streets In accord with these of NewYork City, and there is a frequent tendency to over- the development of a large number of short student projects look the social, behavioral, and economic factors which designed simultaneously to motivate the student and to present the basic concepts of the course. are equal elements of the problem. Second, starting in JeffersonCounty, Colo., and now exThe second factor is the common fear and distrust of technology, with the consequent thwarting of the benefits tending elsewhere, the course has been offered jointly by that technology is designed to deliver. For instance, auto- socialscience teachers and teachers in mathematics or science. This development, which seemspromising as a step mated health examination centers are beingdeveloped rapidly in an attempt to bring health and medical services toward lowering the conventional departmental bamers in to that portion of the population which has been totally secondary schools, is in harmony with the emphasis in the separated from the health care system. The fear of tech- first hard-cover edition of the text on social and environnology on the part of central-city residents threatens to lead mental problem-solvingas a lead into technical concepts. to utilization of such centers by only the suburban population-the group which already receives adequate care. In Course Content The content of The Man-Made World (see Appendix countless other examples, technology developed without adequate public education will result in accentuation of I) has undergone a significant change during the five years of the project. The course started as a presentation of ensocial schisms. The ECCP effort, throughout its brief history, has been gineering concepts. The goal of the cumculum develop an attempt to contribute a small way to the amelioration ment effort was to bring these concepts to the level of the in of these problems. The participants recognize the magnitude high school student. With the exception of the level, howof the problems and the small role for a single effort such ever, the 1966 text was very similar to a conventional enas ECCP. Nevertheless, the project has consistently at- gineering book. The concepts selected during the early years of project the tempted to focus the attention of the teachers on the broad goal. As the participants were told at the close of the 1969 were those underlying the subject of information systems; summer institute at PIB, You are now among the 400 in- modem communications, control, computers, and man-

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE WEE, JUNE 1971

machine interaction. Thus the course considers decision- the hierarchy of learning toward the ultimate goal of an making,modeling,dynamics, feedback, stability, logical illustrative application. The ECCP approachparticularly is design, and computer organization. These are theconcepts appropriate, coupled with the emphasis on social and which constitute the foundation for the modem age of human problems. technology-for the developments in communication, As a consequence of the above trends in the course conurban system studies,automation, biomedical engineering, tent development, The Man-Made World represents a and the delivery of health services. first step toward a multidisciplinary educational experience. From the project experiences during the 1965-1968 years, From the beginning the course has fallen between science however, certain weaknesses of this conventional approach and mathematics; in recent yearsit has involved an increasclearly emerged.The course was too typical of science offer- ing content from the social and behavioral sciences. In the ings, with its emphasis on teaching the student irrefutable Colorado programthere is a study of a team-teaching a p concepts and techniques. The relevance of the material was proach involving social studies teachers. In several other not sufEciently apparent forthe usual teacher. The students regions, interest is rising in this approach. and teachers were enthusiastic about the occasional brief discussion of the human and social implications of the technological concepts. The preliminary paperback version of the text was com- As indicated earlier, computers play a key role in The pleted and published at the end of 1968.This version repre- Man-Made World. This is to be expected since its major sented a marked change from the earlier informal notes. theme is modeling. Analog computer concepts and laboraFor example, the two early chapters on decision theory in- tory work with a small analog computer contribute to the solution of numerous problems inthe course, such as popucluded consideration of the problems of: lation growth and the dynamics of trafEc queues.The final 1) routing police patrol cars tocover a precinct ; section of the course concerns digital computers. The ob2) routing ambulances or fire enginesto reach a destina- jective isto give the student a concept of both the power and tion in minimum time ; the limitations of modem digital computers, and at the same 3) queue formation in supermarkets or at airports. time to indicate to him the hierarchical technique behind

much and then to the concepts. This is in strong contrast to Console Of where the is pre- Telephone States sented first, often in abstract terms, and one works through Electric.

and communication lines contributed by theMountain Company; by Generaltime contributed computer

DAVID AND TRUXAL: MAN-MADE WORLD: TREND I EDUCATION N

929

CARDIAC@, but must run these through the device manAPPENDIX I ually. This technique gives students a fine concept of the THE MAN-MADE WORLD repetitive nature of computers operation and the details of TABLE CONTENTS-FIRST EDITION OF their instruction cycle. It gives no concept of the speed and accuracy of such a machine. The CARDIAC@simulator, Outline of the course written by a student, made it possible to run C A R D I A P Chapter I Technology and Man : programs on the GE computer in a realistic time. Thus stu1) The Man-Made World. dents can execute the same program manually and at the 2) Matching technology to the human user. same time automatically giving them a much better sense of 3) A quantitative look at the yellow light problem computer power. (seeFig. 1). These experiences lead us to conclude that a principal use 4) Preventive health care. for computers in education is to provide insight and intu5 ) Automated multiphasic health testing centers. ition into the unfamiliar. A computer model of traffic flow 6 ) Problems which appear in social systems. and queueing can give the student a feeling for traffic dyChapter 2 Decision Making : namics far beyond what he achieve byany means except can 1) The elements of decisionmaking. long experience with traffic engineering. Another important 2) Types of decisions. feature of computer instruction is that experiments to be 3) Algorithms (see Fig. 2). done need not be of a cookbook quality. Computer experi4) Algorithm for a decision problem. ments can leave as much room for initiative and elaboration 5 ) Criterion. as the student himself desires. 6) Optimization with few alternatives. In its present form, The Man-Made World can be 7) A more complex route planning problem. adapted to the availability of a computer, but one is not 8) Not all problems can be easily solved. needed to achieve its goals. 9) Conclusion. Chapter 3 Optimization: A NEWHORIZON ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR 1) Introduction. The Man-Made World is not a conventional course. 2) Queueing problems. It is not physics or chemistry or political science. Thus 3) Probability. schools find that it does not fit their departmental structure. 4) Queueing studies. This is as it should be. Nevertheless, the lack of a home 5 ) Games. department is the greatest handicap to wide adoption of the 6) A production planning problem. program in school systems. Closely associated with this is 7) Graphing inequalities. the lack of suitable teachers, as discussed previously. This 8) A transportation planning problem (see Fig. 3). is indeed the handicap that any true reform of secondary 9) Conclusion. education must face. Chapter 4 Modeling : As said earlier, technological literacy is the stated objec1) The nature of models. tiveof ECCP. What more specificallyis meant by this 2) The graph as a descriptive model. term? Severalspecific subgoals for ECCP have been at 3) A descriptive model oftraEc flow. least hinted in the previous discussion. They are character4) Models for resource management. izedbybeing independent of technological devices and 5 ) A population model. systemsper se. Perhaps the most important goal in the con6) Exponential growth. text of 1971 and the social milieu isthe idea of cost-benefit 7) An improved population model. tradeoffs. This idea seems completely missing in polemthe 8) Uses of models. ics which accompany todays sociotechnologicalproblems. Chapter 5 Systems: Arguments are made in terms of absolutes and take the 1) Introduction. form of adversary proceedings. Thus the unwary observer 2) Input-output ideas. can easily be misled into adopting one extreme position or 3) Find the parts of a system. another. Resolution of many such problems depends upon 4) Rate inputs. the idea of costs and benefits based upon measures and 5 ) Population model for a town. valuations. With cost-benefit tradeoffs M y in mind, 6 ) The noise-environment system. public discussions could become more nearly rational and 7) Measuring systems. certainly more productive. 8) The range of systems. This is a worthy objective for engineering education genChapter 6 Patterns o Change: f erally. But engineering education must widen its horizon 1) The importance of change. to include nonengineers and the public if it is to approach 2) Communication with language. such goals. If it did so, engineering education itself and the 3) Speech. profession would be the principal beneficiaries. 4) Spectrograms for speech.

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE

I . E JUNE 1971 FE ,

Traffic

0
Light

MAIN TURNPIKE

If a car is here when the light turns yellow, the driver will continue through. If a car is here when the light turns yellow, the driver will stop at the corner

RESIDENTIAL STREET

Fig.1. Consideration of the desired duration of the yellow light at a highway intersection. Vehiclestopping time and human reaction time combinewith human factors to fix the optimum setting. Students measure human reaction time in the lab to compare this with total stopping distance, and then observe the timing of actual lights in their neighborhood.

Fig. 3. Boat simulation. On the two-integrator analog computer unit, the student simulates a boatdocking problem. Especially interested students can introduce varying cuIients, and then go on to use two computer units to simulate the four integrators involved in the translational movement of a hovering VTOL aircraft.

Optlmum

path

1;
0
PAGE 27

;1
N

37 9
0

;1
P

27

Mlnrmum-cost values lor the entrre

problem grrd

Fig. 2. The course develops a series decision of problems utilizing optimization algorithms. Choices among alternatives lead to simple examples dynamic in programming, queueing, game theory, and finally linear programming.

5 ) Signals related to sinusoids. . 6 ) Not all signals are sinusoids. 7) Interhuman communication. 8) Conclusions. Chapter 7 Feedback: 1) A feedback system. 2) Goal seeking. 3) Feedback as self-regulation. 4) Feedback for disturbance control. 5 ) Automatic compensation. 6) A feedback example. 7) Instability in feedback systems. 8) Final comments. Chapter 8 Stability: 1) Introduction. 2) Skyscrapers beget skyscrapers. 3) Stability in traffic flow. 4) The black death. 5 ) Epidemic model.

6 ) An improved epidemic model. 7) Law of supply and demand. 8) Instability in physical systems. 9) Uses of instability. 10) Summary. Chapter 9 Machines and Systems for Men : 1) Introduction. 2) Man as a controller. 3) Man in communication. 4) Man limited by environmental needs. 5 ) Man and sensing. 6 ) Prosthetics. 7) Matching technology to man. 8) Final comment. Chapter 10 TheThinking MansMachine: The key to mans survival. Man asa symbol maker. Ciphers and codes. Symbols and machines. Digital computers: what goes in and what comes out. Digital computers : whats inside? Past, present, and futureof the computer. Chapter I I- Communicating to Computers: 1) Introduction. 2) Loops, loaders, and bootstraps. 3) Building blocks for programs: subroutines. 4) Programs for writing programs. 5 ) Conclusion. Chapter 12 Logical Thought and Logic Circuits: 1) Introduction. 2) How to make electric circuits say And and Or. 3) An Example: the majority vote problem. 4) How to make an electric circuit say not. 5 ) Analysis versus synthesis. 6 ) Additional thoughts on logical thought and circuit models. 7) Summary and conclusion.

DAVID A N D TRUXAL: MAN-MADE WORLD : TREND IN EDUCATION

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@ LI

6 2
L2

@
L3

Fig. 4. Logiccircuitboard.Withthisequipment,thestudentwires up simple logic circuits without and with memory. This portion of the lab ends up with a binary adder and a simplified Morsecode transmitter or, for particularly interested students, the interconnection of boards to do very elementary computing.

low-frequency signal generator (sinusoidal and squarewave) and dc-coupled scope. 3) Logic circuit b o a r d 4 switches, 4 lights, and 4 relays to permit design of simple logic circuits without and with memory. 4) CARDIAC@-CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation, a mechanized version or flow chart of a simple digital computer, with 100 memory spaces. 5 ) Chart recorder-recorder for analog computer output or response of vibrational equipment. 6) Card reader-for data input to logic circuit board. 7) Theodolite-for navigation experimentswithinthe school to illustrate modeling accuracy. 8) Resonant circuit board-for experiments with resonance phenomenon. 9) Tantalizer-drawing tasks carried out by viewing result in a mirror, to illustrate reversed feedback. 10) Demonstration equipment-assorted devices for classroom use to demonstrate instability, accelerated speech, queues, etc. PARTICIPANTS IN
11 1 1965 SUMMER WRITING SESSION
APPENDIX

1) Prof. E. J. Angelo, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, N. Y. 2) N. W.Badger, Garden City High School, Garden City, L. I., N. Y. 3) Dr. E. S . Barrekette, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, N. Y. 4) J. S . Barss, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. 5 ) Prof. L. Braun, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, N. Y. 6) M. Brotherton (formerly Bell Laboratories), Morristown, N. J. 7) Prof. A. E. Bryson, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 8) D. R. Coffinan, James Caldwell High School, W. Caldwell, N. J. 9) Dr. E. E. David, Jr., Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, N. J. 10) Dr. R. L.Garwin, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, N. Y. 11) Dr. D. W. Hagelbarger, Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, N. J. 12) Dr. N. A. Hall, Commission on Engineering Education, Washington, D. C. 13) Prof. W. H. Hayt, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. 14) C. Hellman, Bronx High SchoolofScience,New The laboratory consists of 60 individual and group ex- York, N. Y. periments. Special equipment developed for the laboratory 15) L. Hollinger, Glen Rock High School, Glen Rock, is given in Appendix 11. N. J. 16) Prof. D. A. Huffman, Massachusetts Institute of APPENDIX I1 Technology, Cambridge, Mass. SPECIAL LAB~RATORY EQUIPMENT 17) Prof. W. H. Huggins, Johns Hopkins University, 1) Analog computer-2 integrators, coefficient multi- Baltimore, Md. 18) Col. J. G. Johnson, Sidwell Friends School, Washpliers, power supplyand meter. 2) Signal generator-electronic test package including ington, D. C.
Chapter 13 Logic Circuits as Building Blocks: 1) Introduction. 2) The decimal and the binary number systems. 3) An automatic parallel adder. 4) Numbers with sign. 5 ) A circuit which compares the magnitudes of two numbers (see Fig. 4). 6) A tree circuit. 7) Conclusion. Chapter 14 Machine Memory: 1) Introduction. 2) The basic relay memory element. 3) An addressable memory. 4) Shifting and shift registers. 5 ) Circuits that count. 6) Turning a number into action. 7) Conclusion. Chapter 15 A Minimicro Computer: 1) Introduction. 2) Transferring binary information between components (copying). 3) Input, output, and memory. 4) Arithmetic unit. 5 ) Instructional cycle and control unit. Chapter 16 Epilogue: Are All Things Possible?

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 59, NO.

6, J U N E 1971

19) R. W. King, Staples High School, Westport, Conn. 26) R. A. Went, West Essex High School, W. Caldwell, 20) A. E. Korn, James Caldwell High School, W. Cald- N. J. well, N. J. 27) Dr. E. E. Zajac, Bell Telephone Laboratories, 21) Prof. G. J. Maler, University of Colorado, Boulder, Murray Hill, N. J. Colo. 22) Dr. E. J. Piel, West Essex HighSchool, W. Caldwell, Project Co-Directors N. J. 1) Dr. E. E. David, Jr. 23) B. A. Sachs, Brooklyn Technical High School, 2) Dr. J. G. Truxal Brooklyn, N. Y. REFERENCES 24) Dr. S . Schenberg, Board of Education of NewYork, [l] J. Bordogna, T. Marshall, Jr., and R. N. Russell, A freshman engiBrooklyn, N. Y. neering concepts course, this issue, pp. 932-934. 25) Dr. J. G . Truxal, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, [2] F. K. Manasse, Engineering students and the education of the disadvantaged-the Dartmouth experience, this issue, pp. 935-940. Brooklyn, N. Y.

A Freshman Engineering Concepts Course

ricula [21]-[23] for a variety of reasons and purposes, as explained by David and Truxal in their discussion of the ECCP course, The Man Made World [24], in this issue [35]. Thus there is now a wealth of material with which to INTRODUCTION mold a new approach to the first engineering course, and ANY engineering educators have experienced the experimentation has been taking place at several universiproblem of introducing freshmen to engineering. ties in the United States. In this paper we describe a modiSome solutions to this problem have centered on fication of the The Man Made World course as taught at motivating freshmen through a real-life design experience the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. [I ] ; some have used the computer as an intriguing up-toCOURsESTRUClVRE date aid to visualizing abstract mathematics [2] ; and there The course is elective, giventhree hours per week during has been good argument for insisting that there be a strong engineering laboratory experience for freshmen [3]. These a 15-week semester, and is designedfor first-semester freshpoints of viewhave beenestablished in a group of textbooks men. Parts 1 and 3 of The Man Made World (1969 paper2 written during the past decadeespecially for first-year back edition) are assigned as textbooks; part (the computer material) is omitted completely and purposely since our engineering courses [5)-[17]. At present, there is a trend to mingle all these ideas, to students are required to take a one-semester introductory introduce some all-pervading and unique engineering con- computer course during the second semester of the freshcepts [18]-[20], and to instill some appreciation for the man year. Thus we use the computer only to help learn the engineers role in changing mans environment. All these concepts of parts 1 and 3, and to motivate the simple stepattempts stem from a desire to give the beginning student by-step procedures of the algorithmic approach to problem an idea of what engineering what the engineer does, what solving or decision making. is, At first we were womed about decision to omit part 2, the his responsibilities to society are, and what he must study but it turned out to be ideal since it does not interfere with in order to participate in the solution of engineeringtasks. Concurrent with this stress on a meaningful freshman our already well-establishedcomputer engineering sequence engineering course, the past five years have set stage for of courses. As a matter of fact, the new course rather supplethe an infusion of engineering concepts into high school cur- ments the computer course sequence, as well as all the other electrical engineering courses. We feel this is an important point because the concept of implementation of logical Manuscript received October l, 1970. TheauthorsarewiththeMoore School of ElectricalEngineering, thought by digital computer (what computers are, how they are organized) already pervades many electrical engiUniversity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,Pa. 19104.

Abstract-A college-level modification of the Engineering Concepts Curriculum Project (ECCP) course, The Man Made World, is described, and its use as a framework fora computer-communication based education system is suggested.