DR. YVONNE SPICER

Associate Director, Formal Education

National Center for Technological Literacy

“I have tried to build bridges over which others can walk,” says Dr. Yvonne Spicer, 44, the new Associate Director for the Museum of Science’s National Center for Technological Literacy (NCTL) K-12. She has been blazing trails for years. “I will use every tool I have to try to reach young people. But you never know what your impact will be.”

One former student told her, “I’m an architect because of you. You made me feel I could do anything.” Says Spicer, “Moments like those sustain me.

“Twenty years ago, not many technology education teachers looked like me,” she says. “There were no female role models. I didn’t have a teacher of color until 6^th grade science class. It’s important for kids to have models.” She also recalls teaching her first high school architecture class, when a “group of rambunctious boys said, ‘What does a woman know about architecture?’ But I tried to harness their energies.” She showed them slides of Buckminster Fuller’s structures as well as the work of other architects and designers. She also took the students to an architectural firm working on the Big Dig. “They were excited to connect what they were learning in class with the real world.”

Spicer comes to the Museum in January 2006 from the Newton Public Schools, where she was Director of Career & Technical Education. Since 2001, she oversaw curriculum development and assessment of Chapter 74 vocational programs, Technology/Engineering and Family & Consumer Sciences. As NCTL Associate Director for formal education, Spicer will oversee work with state leaders in education, industry, government, and policy-making across the country to help them integrate technology and engineering into their curricula and will assist with dissemination of the Museum’s formal engineering/ technology education elements. They include K-12 curricula, such as the Engineering is Elementary and Engineering the Future courses, and teacher training and support.

“This is my ‘dream job.’ It allows me to do the most creative work I’ve ever done,” says Spicer. “I’m thrilled to be part of the Museum’s team, talented people whose focus and motivation match my own.” She is concerned how many children in the U.S. “are shut out of technology and engineering. We must connect technology and engineering to other subjects so they are not taught in silos. Our country is losing its edge in science and technology. Technological literacy is important because it is embedded in everything we touch. Students need to learn how engineers create things. If we understand technology, we can also be better consumers and workers. We tend to value sequential, logical learning over kinesthetic learning. We need to shift that paradigm. We must show young people how to apply their knowledge in math and science to solve engineering problems.”

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Spicer loved taking things apart. “I was a tinkerer, right next to my Dad changing the car oil filter.” Graduating in 1980 from Brooklyn Technical High School, she developed a passion for architecture and building structures from drawings. Spicer accepted a scholarship to attend the State University of New York-Oswego, graduating with a B.S. in industrial arts in 1984 and an M.S. in technology education in 1985. She earned her doctorate in Educational Administration at University of Massachusetts, Boston in 2004.

In 1985, when visiting Boston friends, she happened to see a Boston Globe ad for an industrial arts teacher in the Framingham Public Schools. She sent in her resume, was interviewed, and that evening got an offer. “I said, ‘I’ll teach anything except woodworking.’ But that was the job!” Her mother said, “Yvonne, if woodworking is your Achilles heel, master it!” And she did, teaching woodworking her first year and computers and programming her second. In 1987, Spicer went to Framingham North High, where she taught drafting, architecture, graphic arts, and photography until 1999. In her last three years as Framingham’s department chair for technology education, Spicer supervised a staff of 14; collaborated with the district leadership on policy, curriculum implementation, and alignment with the state framework; and made recommendations for technology education facilities in the proposed renovation of the middle school.

Spicer was also instrumental from 1999 to 2001 in revising the Science & Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework. As a Statewide Technology/Engineering Coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Education, she led the revision process for PreK-12 standards development. She also met Tufts Dean of Engineering Ioannis Miaoulis, then spearheading the introduction of engineering into the Massachusetts curriculum.

Her first visit to the Museum was in 1985. “As a kid I loved museums. But, we couldn’t touch things. The Museum of Science impressed me because we could!” After becoming a Museum Overseer in 2003, Spicer heard Miaoulis, who by then had become the Museum of Science’s new President, describe the NCTL. She was delighted that the Museum was taking the lead in educating students nationwide about technology and engineering. “The NCTL offers everything—curricula, standards, assessments and professional development. Once we solidify our professional development programs, we can provide educators in Massachusetts and across the country with our model and support.”

As a National Science Foundation Program Reviewer, Spicer has reviewed, and recommended funding for several science and technology/engineering education proposals. She has also served as President of the International Technology Education Association’s Council of Supervisors, an Executive Board Member of the Massachusetts Technology/Engineering Collaborative and the Technology Education Association of Massachusetts. Her honors include selection by the National Aeronautics & Space Administration in 2000 to participate in an aerospace engineering program for technology educators. Named Framingham State’s Global Education Teacher of the Year in 1993, she also received the Anti-Defamation League’s 1995 “A World of Difference” Teacher Incentive Award and the 1985 Robin Kazer Memorial Award for Excellence in Technology Education.

A Framingham resident, Spicer is an avid New England Patriots fan and loves to travel, heading for the ocean to “soothe my spirit.”

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