Oops, There Goes Another Bridge
I probably shouldn't criticize a curriculum that I have not observed, but as someone who studied engineering the old-fashioned way (ie with lots of math and equations) this looks kind of worrisome:
Today's Christian Science Monitor profiles Glenn Ellis, a professor who helped develop Smith's innovative engineering curriculum, which emphasizes context, ethics, and communication as much as formulas and equations.
We know that when the goals in public schools were shifted from education to graduation and retention (e.g. social promotion), the results were disastrous. So one has to be a little wary of a curriculum aimed more at retention than, you know, designing bridges correctly:
Smith, the first women's college to offer an engineering degree, graduated its first class of engineers in 2004, and since the program's creation, in 1999, has attained a 90-percent retention rate.
Hmm. Well, if they are teaching the same material in a more engaging manner, fine. But lower degree retention rates in hard core engineering programs is not a "female thing." I know that we had a lot of attrition from the harder engineering degrees (mechanical, chemical) at Princeton even among Ivy-League-Quality students and even among the males.
Hat tip: TJIC
