It's almost like magic. Tap some buttons, and the calculator
adds. Press the shutter, and the camera takes a photograph. Turn
the key, and the car's engine hums to life. Dr. John Krupczak of
the Hope College engineering faculty realizes that although most
of his students know how to make such things work, they are less
clear concerning why they work. Through his popular beginning-
level course "Science and Technology of Everyday Life," in which
students build equipment from radios to keyboards, he hopes to
change all that. He wants to take the mystery out of the objects
they use daily, and in the process make them more comfortable
with science generally. "Our daily experience is all this
technology," said Krupczak, an assistant professor of
engineering. "We have thousands of technological items, and are
in daily contact with hundreds--the wristwatch, the alarm clock,
the car, the computer." "So it makes sense to study this
technological world that we've built around ourselves," he said.
"And embedded in it are