How much could today’s teen learn by working in Thomas Edison’s lab? A new report from the Lemelson-MIT Invention Index says: “A vast majority of teens (79 percent) believe there is value in hands-on, project-based science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and learning in high school.”
Even fairly late in the 20th century hands-on lab experience meant working in a place that still looked much like Edison’s laboratories. Even fairly late in the 20th century, teens learned much of their science hands-on in brick and mortar labs at school or on apprenticeships.
Edison’s laboratory had no computers, no Internet access to information and no real-time collaboration. His references came from books and letters. You will think of other differences. Have we switched our viewpoint away from idealizing a school lab as something like Edison’s was?
Today’s teens have computers in their pockets, do not remember the pre-Internet days, and collaborate throughout the day in real time. Only at school are they primarily required to use books to find information. You will think of other ways today’s teens are different from those of us who felt we were in touch with the real world when we had created a chemical reaction in a test tube on a school lab table.
On the Edison National Historic Site page where the above picture is found, the legend under the picture reads: “Thomas Edison always maintained that chemistry was his favorite science, and chemistry was indeed integral to most of the laboratory’s work.” Educators need to figure out what a lab would look like today for a gifted young inventor with the potential of a Thomas Edison. A teen Edison today would surely stand proudly among devices to access the virtual world for information and virtual experimentation.
We must be sure our 20th century minds are released from idealizing old Tom Edison’s lab before we can think freshly about what today’s teens need to nurture their inventive gifts.
