[Beowulf] Re: about clusters in high schools

[Robert G. Brown]

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006, James Cownie wrote:

>
> On 28 Jan 2006, at 03:37, Andrew Piskorski wrote:
>> 
>> A whole CLASS on "team work" or "presentation skills"?  As fundamental
>> to an ENGINEERING curriculum?  God save us...  Or rather, let's hope
>> all the engineers we import from India and China save us - from faulty
>> automobiles, process plant disasters, collapsing bridges, etc. etc.
>> 
>
> A whole class may be more than is necessary, but the inability of the Morton 
> Thiokol engineers
> to produce a convincing presentation of their results which made their 
> concerns clear to their management
> and also convinced NASA was a major contribution to the decision to launch 
> Challenger...
>
> So, some education in presentation skills seems worthwhile.

...which is best obtained by in fact attending a liberal arts college
and actually taking a broad base of electives that include both written
and verbal communication and group/shared learning processes...as a
physics or math major!

(ducks into nearby nuclear-proofed bomb shelter...:-)

    rgb

>
> --
> -- Jim
> --
> James Cownie <jcownie at cantab.net>
>
>
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-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu