TOOLS, TECHNOLOGY, "STEM" and ROBOTS

FROM STICKS AND STONES, TO SMART PROBLEM SOLVING AND AUTOMATION

(ideas draft for Lesson plan : Technical Troubleshooting Workshop)

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the following ideas and writtings is to:

1. Call attention to and promote the RETURN TO A HEALTHY START in the "STEM / STEAM" (quantitative) education discourse, focusing on better understanding, abilities and practices for designing and building TOOLS. Tools is what help us identify and resolve needs, simple and complex problems, from the earliest ages in our lives.

2. And particularly to promote the REDESIGN OF CURRENT CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION, leading to a better, more relaxed, realistic-meaningful, common-sense, up-to-date, motivating environment through GREATER QUALITY AND QUANTITY of pre-K-12 and professional education.

THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION

Perhaps we can start by considering the following question: Ever wonder why some people always seem to live better, safer and longer than others? Not just individually, but as a group or whole societies.

Yes, there can be many factors and possible special circumstances that at times could favor some of us individually, but deep down we know there are basic factors that are key to help us identify opportunities and take advantage of situations better, safer and more permanently. What we know as "abilities" and "skills" to perceive our world and take best advantage of it, has been indeed what has kept us surviving and relativelly at the top of the list among species in our planet.

Being aware (alert, educated) and prepared, (having the proper tools and skills) to take advantage of opportunities in the environment, to confront the risks around us, seems to be one of the biggest reasons for our success.

WHAT DOES EDUCATION AND BEING EDUCATED MEAN?

As described in Wikipedia (October, 2018), Education is "the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits." We humans continuosly strive to learn, develop and take advantage of knowledge, skills, values and habits that are best for us. All those ideas, physical objects and practices overall are what we identify as our tools and technologies. Being educated as the quality of possessing and using those advantages (known as leverage) is therefore what help us live better, longer, safer, happier lives.

In practice, however, it soon becomes clear that "educating" people is a rather difficullt and potentially costly activity. Usual complaints about education, and in particular productive and practical activities, often identified as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, ("STEM") very commonly include poor connections between ideas and real-life circumstances, that is, the meaning and depth of what we learn, related to what we actually need and do in real life. A consequence of this disconnection is apparent as we constantly hear about the unreasonably large numbers of students and citizens that fail to be motivated and benefited by the knowledge and skills learned to what is required for their better personal and socioeconomic growth.

WHAT ARE TOOLS AND WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY?

For most of us, the word "tools" reminds us of the useful objects and devices we keep in a "toolbox" at home or at work to help us figure out and fix various practical problems.

The word "tool", however refers to a more general concept. In Wikipedia (2017), a tool is described as "any item that can be used to achieve a goal.” The Oxford Dictionaries and the Cambridge On-line dictionary (ref) define a TOOL as: "A thing used to help perform a job" (ref), and "anything that helps you to do something you want to do". ...

Stated in a simpler way, we can say that: a tool is something we use to help us do the things we need to do to stay alive and live better. We do this mostly by using and extending the capabilities of our own bodies to explore, think and change our environment in smarter, more effective (cheaper, faster, safer, and/or more powerful) ways. Therefore, we can say that a hammer, as well as a spoon, a fork, a knife and a computer are all tools, and so are the clothes we wear, the homes we live in and the vehicles we use to go places, as they help us survive, protect our bodies from and enjoy our environment, so we can stay safe and live happier.

From the beginning, we have used our bodies and all kinds of objects in our environment as tools. Clearly, much of our success of humans on earth can be has attributed to our continuous use and improvement of tools, assisting and building on over our basic nature-given strengths. Today we have tools that help us with almost every need and activity. We design, produce, and utilize newer, more effective and satisfying goods with working assistance from the environment to understand and transform energies.

Starting with simpler tools,