In article 2,
DerbyBorn wrote:

Nowadays it is hard to impress any teenagers as they have little
interest in anything mechanical. They are more impressed by Apple
introduding a new colour for the iPad. They have little concept of the
struggle to make things work.

My sons school seem to have got this right. Their science teacher (or maybe
DT? Can't remember) seems to have an engineering background and appears to
have contacts within Rolls Royce. He has a collection of things, including
a jet turbine blade from a harrier engine and other similar things.

They then go on trips to places like Duxford and get a custom tour to
see the bits of engineering in real planes etc.

They are also building a race car (different teachers) - Kids had to get
sponsorship from local companies to get the money for the kit, they now
hace the chassis running. Next they need to work out ways of building a
body ready for racing next year.

http://www.greenpower.co.uk/racing/formula24/

I've sent in a few bits of fibre from work (128 core bundles) and that's
now part of the physics work - teaching refraction and total internal
reflection is easier when you've got some real world cable in front of
you (and some lasers to play with :-)). Tying that into the "this is how
your broadband works" and "this fibre to the cab thing you all know about,
here is some fibre" really brings the science into context.

I think it's lack of good teachers that's the main issue, not the lack of
teenagers interest...

Darren