Why is engineering important at DGS and beyond?
Through engineering, children learn the important process of trial and error, problem solving, and revision. Engineering fosters creativity. Children use their imaginations to dream of possibilities. They learn about innovation, original ideas, and thinking outside the box. And they learn to follow inspiration!
We take our job of fostering each child’s creativity and ability to think outside the box, problem solve, and think critically seriously. So, we do not relegate engineering to a few projects a year, or a few days per month. Engineering is integrated throughout the curriculum on an on-going basis. Included in our engineering curriculum is the Lego’s sequenced engineering curriculum starting in kindergarten and leading students up to Mindstorm robotics in middle school.
Children are natural born engineers. They intrinsically want to know how things work. They are masterful at taking things apart, and equally skillful at building.
Children challenge themselves to reach a goal and willingly navigate through obstacles as a means to get to the end. It fosters perseverance.
Children are also natural collaborators. They learn to talk through problems, listen to others, brainstorm, and communicate.
And all of this is super important… According to the Future of Jobs Survey 2018, published by the World Economic Forum, skills that are trending for the future include analytical thinking and innovation; creativity, originality, and initiative; critical thinking, analysis, complex problem solving, and reasoning; and systems analysis and evaluation. We see a decline in the value of rote memory and basic skills. Read more here.
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