Maine technology program gets a boost. (Update: education news from schools, business, research and professional organizations).

Thanks to a $400-plus million software donation to Maine schools, students there can graduate with four to eight years of experience in precision manufacturing software tools, helping them conquer the learning curve of some entry-level manufacturing jobs.

Attracted to the state because of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (which includes providing laptops to all middle school students), Piano, Tex.-based EDS is providing its Product Life-cycle Management software tools to all middle and high schools, as well as to the state's technical college and state university systems. The software addresses the creation, design, manufacture and processing of semiconductors and other products. Of the more than 24,000 manufacturers who use PLM software, at least 400 are in Maine.

"[Maine] is willing to invest in students," says Hulas King, director of EDS' academic partnership program, which also has Alabama and Missouri K-16 initiatives in the works. Besides monitoring student success under the state's technology initiative, EDS checked with manufacturers and got a thumbs-up for its gift idea.

The first orientation sessions for teacher trainers were in January. "These products are as robust as you can get in the whole product lifecycle spectrum," says Tony Sprague, MLTI's project manager. "We want to make sure everybody can use them." By fall, most schools will start using the program.

The lab-based software will be incorporated in appropriate classes on desktop computers, not the iBooks, Sprague says. One vocational arts teacher recently told Sprague how the software would help students with a bridge-designing project he does in conjunction with a physics class. The students build bridges out of Popside sticks or other materials. It's a one-shot model leaving no time for experimentation. With the software, he can model potential designs and encourage students to try something new. If a bridge doesn't work structurally (say, a steel beam might snap under certain conditions), students will see that from the get-go.

Besides career exploration, King says the software will help all students in math and science.

As for Maine's laptop program, all seventh graders currently have iBooks; as planned, eighth graders are expected to have them this fall, Sprague says.

www.state.me.us/ education