Precollege Convergence Education

Abstract

Education is a long-term investment. If society is to reap the benefits of convergence technologies in decades to come, a convergence culture must be established at the precollege level. All students, regardless of their future careers, must have the opportunity to develop a strong foundation in systems thinking, grounded in a deep and flexible understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), the social sciences, the arts and the humanities. This chapter describes a conceptual framework for convergence learning in the formal precollege education setting. It is based on the successful Materials World Modules program developed for precollege students over a 22-year period at Northwestern University.