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The WISCONSIN ENGINEER
SCHOOL FOR ENGINEERING TEACHERS
                        HELD AT MADISON
                 Be LESLIE F. VAN HAGAN, Professor of Railway Engineering
FORTY      teachers of mechanics and allied subjects
in engineering colleges throughout the country
spent the period from July 11 to 28 at Madison in
attendance at the first Summer School for Engineering
                                          I -1- A; tl.,-
country. An equal number
of teachers w e r e in at-
tendance at Cornell Uni-
versity, both schools being
conducted by the Society
for the Promotion of Engi-
neering  Education, aided
by a special appropriation
from the Carnegie Corpor-
ation of New York. The
school was an experiment
based upon the precedent
of somewhat similar
schools that are conducted
in Great Britain.
ro -n nenent 01 reaoerI_
                             r or the Denent of readecrs
        *o.I. R. \AURER    Who are not in a position
to follow closely the developments in engineering educa-
tion, a little explanation of present conditions will b2
given. The engineering teachers of the country are
organize(l into the above-mentioned Society for the
Promotion of Engineering Education, which has been
conolucting an intensive investigation into all phases of
engineering eolucationt under the immediate direction
of Prof. WV. L. Wickenden, who was, at one time, a
member of the faculty of this college. Recently he
has been an engineer for the A. T. & T. The Investi-
gation has involved the active participation of many of
the engineering schools of the country and the question-
inig of many alumni and students.  Our own alumni
an(d stu(Ients and faculty members have contributed
their share to the progress of the work.
  The investigation has been both broad-visioned and
searching. Higher edlucation of all kinds has been
attacked so viciously within recent years that educators
have been olisturbeol about their own work, feeling that
perhaps they had an entirely wrong conception of the
training of youth and that it was time for something
revolutionary in educational methods. iMany experi-
ments have been and are being conducted in our engi-
neering colleges at the present time in a search for
better ways of teaching.  One of them that may be
mentione(l is the scheme of assigning students to class
sections 11pon0 the basis of their scholastic ability. This
is being tried in a number of institutions including
Wisconsin.
  The Summer School for Engineering Teachers was
an experiment proposed by the Investigation and carried
out under the immediate direction of Prof. H. P. Ham-
niond, associate director. Mechanics was chosen as the
subject about which the work of the school should
center for the reason that it is a subject common to
all engineering courses and one with which all engi-
neering teachers are familiar to some extent. Cornell
and Wisconsin were selected as the places at which to
hold sessions because of the attractiveness of their
surroundings, the opportunities they offer for recre-
ation, their housing facilities, and the strength of their
departments of mechanics.
           Methods of Schools are Varied
  The term school does not indicate accurately the
nature of the sessions.  The gathering was really a
conference between teachers who were upon much the
same ground so far as teaching experience was con-
cerned. A valuable feature of the Wisconsin Session
was the committee work, which gave those in attend-
ance an opportunity to present and discuss their ideas
about various phases of the teaching of mechanics. The
reports of the committees, representing the boiled-down
opinions of the majority of the teachers present, should
be of value to all teachers of mechanics.
  There were usually two, and often three sessions each
day.  Sometimes members of the staff of the school
would give demonstrations of their teaching methods,
which would be followed by general discussion. Several
sessions were spent in laboratories watching and discuss-
ing demonstrations.  Lectures were numerous.    Out-
standing among them were the addresses of President
Frank and Mr. Wickenden.       Both speakers avoided
S. P. E. E. SUMMER SESSION
platitudes, offering instead something of a challenge.
President Frank challenged the proponents of scientific
education with the statement that such education is
failing to train men and women to think scientifically
               (Continued on page 26)
Volume 32, No. I
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