time for change

I just finished my winter term finals. I slept maybe 16 hours over a 4 day and 4 night period, just so I could cram enough material into my brain for a 24 hour period so that some professor can verify that I’m “knowledgeable” in physical chemistry and ceramics? You know what, I’ve already forgotten half of what I learned, and I’ll forget most of it in a week. Now, I’m far from the ideal student, but I’d be willing to bet that most of my classmates would say the same, and that students around the world all hate the system as much as I do.

What’s the answer? I’m not positive, but I’m a big believer in problem based learning. The real world doesn’t consist of homework and tests, so why should our college education. College is quite different from our primary education. It is about creating a career, preparing someone to work in a specific field. When we get out into the real world we’re going to be presented with problems that need solving and projects that have deadlines.

So how do we fix this? We don’t wait for the colleges and faculty to make the change. You have to be the change. Check out the Duke Smart Home project and Drexel’s very own Drexel Smart House project. Both are prime examples of where students have taken charge and identified problems that need solving, and have decided that they are going to do whatever it takes to work on fixing those problems.

What can you do? Identify a problem that needs to be solved, find people who are willing to help, and get to work. Raise the money, develop a plan, create a timeline, set some goals, and get it done. What you work on doesn’t specifically matter, but the process from beginning to end is invaluable. Let me know how it goes.