For those that don’t know, the is National Engineering Week. Part of what happens this week is engineers go around to the local schools and talk about engineering, as well as participate in local extra-curricular math & science activities. Me being the overachiever that I am, I’m participating in one 6-week math program, one 6-week science program (both 4th & 5th graders), and I did two career presentations (one 8th grade, one HS girls science club). Of the four different classes I’ve worked with, only one was…unpleasant (the 8th graders were rude, noisy, etc.), the other three were wonderful. Both of my 6-week programs have kids excited about math & science, kids who are intelligent, engaging and fun to work with. The math club works on math games and projects (card games, stock market games, etc), while the science club is making gliders, catapults, and trebuchets (good fun!).
The HS Girls group was my career presentation for today, which I did with a woman from our wing stress group. The HS in question was one of the local “Alternative” High Schools for kids who had to leave regular High School for whatever reason. The presentation went over what engineers are as well as what engineers do that touches everyone’s daily life, and how we do it. Then, we gave the kids a project, which in this case, was to devise a way to protect a raw egg from a 4 foot drop using only drinking straws and masking tape. The girls produced some very creative designs and of the 7 designs, all of them had a pretty solid chance of working, with 2 designs actually protecting their eggs completely, and only one egg cracking open all the way (the other 4 had hairline cracks). The 2 winners had a “drop-off” by dropping their eggs from 5 feet. The winning group still had an intact egg at the end (and their design actually bounced rather nicely, we were impressed). Not bad for 30 minutes of design and construction.
Finally, we told them the why & how of how we became engineers, as well as letting them know that it’s OK if they don’t get math right now, if they keep at it, it will make sense someday; that college is a reality, even if they don’t have the grades to get accepted as a freshman (many Universities have programs that funnel students in from satellite schools), or if they don’t have the money for tuition (lots of grants, loans, scholarships, and employer programs out there that help finance schools), and that if they really want it, the work is worth it.
All in all, a good week.