Industrial Arts Curriculum Project
(IACP)
Kevin Yahn
TED 502
State University College at Oswego
Fall 2003
Introduction
The Industrial Arts Curriculum Projects also known as the (IACP) holds arguably the most
significant impact on the field of Technology Education as we know it today. In a time when Industrial
Arts education was still under the cloud of its manual training base, the Industrial Arts Curriculum Project
sought to bring the field into the classification as the other core liberal subjects. The project was based on
learner knowledge, in which it prepared youth for a society that was very largely shaped at the time by
industrial technology.
This project was designed as two-one year courses to be taught at the junior high school level.
The IACP used not only the beliefs of its directors, but was heavily influenced by the input of leaders in
both the manufacturing and construction industries. At the time, the field of industrial arts held no common
ground in the curriculum from school district to school district, yet the standards that were in place were
simply outdated and were hard to differ from manual training. The IACP sought to produce a common
curriculum for all school districts to follow, and using its broad industry based curriculum it sought to bring
industrial arts into the liberal core of the junior high school level. Having it hold the same type of liberal
education as English, Math, Science or Social Studies classes would.
In this paper, it is the intention of the author to provide the reader with an overall significance of
the Industrial Arts Curriculum Project to the field of Technology Education as it stands today. There were
many reasons behind the implementation of the IACP, which needed to be resolved in order for future
survival of the field. This project was a large group effort in which many school districts participated and
thus made the project possible. All of the participants helped in the design of the project and also much
influence came from the construction and manufacturing industries to insure that the information being
taught was not only true, yet current. Through this paper the actual workings of the IACP will be
discussed with regards to funding, standardization, objectives and learner outcomes, ways for constant
upgrades, and finally teacher methodologies.
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Birth of the IACP
The midpoint of the twentieth century already had passed, and the presence of technological
advances was growing at a faster pace than ever seen before. The cold war well under way, and the race
between the United States and the Soviet Union, to be the first to land humans on the moon was making
significant progress. Yet for a field such as Industrial Arts that was supposed to provide students with
insight into the workings and developments of modern industries, they were still in the days of building
bird houses and working with bread boards. The question was raised of whether the current curriculum of
woodworking and metalworking was really doing students justice in the age of constantly changing
technologies.
In a time such as the 1960’s were almost all social norms were evaluated and many social
behaviors were changed it is no wonder that the decade proved to produce much change in the Industrial
Arts curriculum. Over 30 different curriculum projects were attempted, with many of them failing for
various reasons. The three largest curriculum programs of the decade were the Maryland Plan, the
American Industrial Project and of course the most significant is the Industrial Arts Curriculum Project.
What is so different about the IACP is that it places the most significance on interpreting industry and
applying principles though in depth research.
This project would catch a huge break with the Vocational
Education Act of 1963 in which millions of dollars were drawn from the career portion to aid in
instructional hardware and software. Yet, before the IACP was to change the structure of the Industrial
Arts program, much work needed to be done and would prove to be anything but easy for all those involved
in its implication.
IACP Project Team
The Industrial Arts Curriculum Project was different than any other project before, because it was
the first educational program to combine the educational philosophies of many educated individuals with
the real life experience of the leaders in both the construction and manufacturing industries. The project
was led by Dr. Donald Lux and Dr. Willis Ray of The Ohio State University, two of the biggest names in
the field of Industrial Arts at the time. Together they served as the co-director’s and principle investigators
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for the project. Donald Lux is originally from Austin, Minnesota where he graduated high school in 1941.
It was not until four years later when he decided to pursue higher education, leaving behind a job in the
United States Navy as an engine room chief to attend Stout University in Wisconsin. By 1949 he had
earned his Bachelors of Science degree and just three years later had earned his Masters. In 1955 he had
achieved a Ph.D from The Ohio State University, just 10 years after he decided to pursue higher education.
After teaching at OSU and then the University of Illinois, he decided to return to The Ohio State University
in 1965 and would remain until retiring from his full-time position in 1984.
Among Dr. Lux’s accomplishments are co-authoring four editions of the World of Construction
and the World of Manufacturing, with Dr. Ray. Dr. Lux has also written the Industrial Arts Education
portion in the Encyclopedia of educational research. He has been heavily involved in the honorary
fraternity for technology known as Epsilon Pi Tau where he has served as a regional director and vice
chairman on the board of directors and is currently the trustee for The Ohio State University. For his
tremendous career and continuing involvement in the field Dr. Lux has received many honors and awards
over the years. Some of the most significant are receiving the title of Professor Emeritus from OSU, the
Laureate Citation from Epsilon Phi Tau, Man of the Year in the Construction Industry, Teacher of the Year,
and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in the College of Education at The Ohio State University in 1995.
As stated by Dr. Lux in many readings he gives great respect to all of those involved in the
development of the IACP. Along with himself and Dr. Willis Ray, there was four assistant directors, an
advisory committee of twelve members, and 42 research assistants. Also countless sources of industry
personnel where contacted for primary information to which most of the information in texts was derived
from to ensure that the information was both correct and current. However the most significant factor on
the success of the IACP is accreted by the directors to the individual schools who with their constant
support and patience had made this project possible. As stated by Dr. Lux:
“Clearly the field test center teachers were, collectively, the
most significant contributors to the final products because they were
the ones with their feet to the fire and were the real authorities
regarding what the learners needed and wanted.”
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Workings of the IACP
As stated before, the field test centers or individual schools were the most significant factor to the
overall success of the project. However for a school system to employ this curriculum they were required
to have two industrial arts teachers and offer two courses of the curriculum, one at seventh and one at the
eighth grade level. The classes were to be heterogeneous in gender. For schools that were willing to
participate in the project, they were provided with all the standardized materials that any other core liberal
course would contain. The classes were to be the World of Construction and the World of Manufacturing
and were to be taught at the junior high school level. Participating schools were provided with training for
their teachers, complete instructional software including; textbooks, workbooks and laboratory manuals.
This meant that detailed activities were to be provided for the students, from which were developed by not
only scholars of national regard but also the leaders in the construction and manufacturing industries. For
the participating teachers, they were provided with detailed teacher’s guides with daily learner outcomes,
standardized tests, and instructional aids for activity-based instruction.
What is so different about this project than any other before it is that the teachers were given the
opportunity to become actively involved in the development of the project. Daily the cooperating teachers
made notes as to how the activities went and possible suggestions for improvement, the on Saturday’s the
schools two Industrial Arts teachers would meet and discuss the weeks progress and then combined there
thoughts into a weekly report. Each year during the mid-point of the year all participating teachers were
invited to an annual conference where ideas were shared and discussed. At these events the individual
teachers were questioned as the impact in their classrooms, and then to what they thought should be
changed to make the activities for meaningful for the students. They were asked on many different topics
including scheduling, time periods, organization, and consumables. These sessions proved to be very
helpful for the directors who were constantly seeking ways to improve the curriculum, and the teachers
were glad to participate as they noticed that their ideas were actually developed into the curriculum. As the
involvement of the cooperating teachers grew, many became teacher educators during the summers, thus
teaching other teachers new to the curriculum the best ways to employ and take advantage of this great
instructional tool.
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Objectives/Goals
As defined by the authors “industry is that subcategory of the economic system which
substantially changes the form of materials in response to man’s wants for material foods and services.
Technology is defined as the knowledge of techniques. Industrial arts is defined as an organized study of
the knowledge of techniques used in construction and in manufacture, or industry” (Lux/Ray). Along with
the complete “revamping” of the courses, the authors also provided a new set of objectives for Industrial
arts as well, stating:
1.
2.
3.
Enables students to understand the concepts, principles, generalizations, problems, and
strategies of industrial technology.
Encourages an interest in and an appreciation for industry as that element of the
economic system that provides industrial material goods for the satisfaction of human
wants for those goods.
Provides knowledge and skills that will be useful in life situations of occupational,
recreational, consumer, and socio-cultural significance.(Lux/Ray)
As well as the program objectives, each course contained 12 of its own learner objectives. Both
the World and Construction and the World of Manufacturing, are broken down into three major sections.
The World of Construction covers the managed-personnel-production aspect of the industry, housing
construction, and an analysis of city construction practices. The World of Manufacturing cover a brief
history of the industry, an analysis of the managed-personnel-production system of manufacturing, and a
synthesis of manufacturing practices applied to the corporation. Both of these courses are targeted at
learner-based activities, they aim to provide appropriate knowledge and then activities in which the learner
can identify which a mental image though hands on practical activities. These courses are aimed to provide
an educational background to the industries of the 1960’s so that the students will leave the course with an
understanding of the world around them, and possibly find the courses so interesting that they decide to
pursue a career in the industry.
Conclusion
At the projects end it proved to be nothing less than a great success. This project is long before
the days of “Project Lead the Way” and from my findings seems to have directly influenced it. This project
was adopted by all of the field test schools that participated and was adopted by many states into the junior
high school standards. This curriculum did in fact modernize Industrial Arts, and provided the teachers
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with the same instructional materials as a teacher of Science or English would have. It was indeed different
than any curriculum project of its kind; it was the first curriculum of Industrial Arts to focus study on the
structure of knowledge. In a review by D.L Householder years after the IACP’s introduction, stated:
The Industrial Arts Curriculum Project (IACP) is unique in several ways. It is the only
major industrial arts curriculum effort which has been rooted in an analysis of the structure of
knowledge. It is the first project to produce instructional materials and a sequence of courses
correlated with a taxonometric classification of a body of knowledge. The intensive field testing and
inservice teacher education which accomplished the development have been unequalled. Finally,
IACP is the only program which has produced a substantial group of integrated instructional
materials and made them available through a commerical publisher. In view of these attributes,
IACP is considered by many to be the outstanding accomplishment of the past decade in industrial
arts curriculum development."(1972)
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Bibliography
Householder, D.L.(1972). Review and evaluation of curriculum development in industrial arts education.
Bloomington, IL: McKnight Publishing Co.
Lux/Ray. (1970). The World of Construction, Industrial Arts Curriculum Project. Bloomington, IL:
McKnight Publishing Co.
Lux/Ray (1970). The World of Manufacturing, Industrial Arts Curriculum Project. Bloomington, IL:
McKnight Publishing Co.
Lux/Ray (1970). The World of Construciton, Laboratory Manual. Bloomington, IL: McKnight Publishing
Co.
Lux/Ray (1970). The World of Manufacturing, Laboratory Manual. Bloomington, IL:McKnight Publishig
Co.
Lux/Ray(1970). The World of Construction, Teachers Guide. Bloomington, IL:McKnight Publishing Co.
Lux/Ray (1970). The World of Manufacturing, Teachers Guide. Bloomington, IL: McKnight Publishig Co.
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