Last Friday was certainly a day of firsts for both myself, and the Engineering Ambassadors. For myself, it was the first high school visit that I had attended, and for the Engineering Ambassadors, it was our first out-of-state high school trip. Determined to make our mark in this new front, Kim, Katie, Adrienne, Matt, Alan, and I packed into an SUV ready to break new ground. And off we were at 6 am, aimed to teach high school and middle school students about what it really means to be an engineer.I have to say that I was pretty excited about the high school visit, considering this was my first one. Throughout the day, Adrienne Crivaro and I gave several presentations about exciting careers in engineering to students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. Specifically, we talked about how engineers have an impact on the Hershey, Pennsylvania area through the chocolate factory, Hershey Medical Center, and Hershey Park. The students were surprised to learn that the engineers were so involved with all these industries, and hearing about it certainly grabbed their attention. I am a little sad to say that the end of our presentation was probably the most fun part of the day, but this was because it led right into a roller-coaster building challenge. We split the classes up in 5 small groups, gave them a limited supply of materials, and listed a number of constraints for the project. The students were allowed use any part of the room to build their roller coasters, but they had to include at least one loop in their design. Also, we asked the students to keep in mind some of the engineering concepts that we discussed. It was truly amazing to see the types of tracks that the young students came up with. Time and time again, my expectations were surpassed as the students incorporated crazier and crazier designs into their roller coasters. One group of bold 6th graders were able to include 3 successive loops in their design, and another creative group from the 7th grade actually had their roller coaster attached to the ceiling of the class room, running over some desks, and finally to the ground.
The entire day was so much fun, and I am honored to be part of such an amazing organization that offers these types of opportunities. It is so important to spread the knowledge, or the "word", about engineering because most of these students really don't know what engineers do in the world. We asked the students throughout the day what they thought of when they heard the word "engineer." Most often the students responded without much interest by saying that engineers work on trains or cars. Confused at first, I though back to when I was in grade school and high school. I probably would have said the same exact thing as the students I presented to had said. However, after seeing the looks on the students' faces and the enthusiasm they put into the roller-coaster activity, I know I have inspired some inspired future engineers. That alone makes these high school trips worth the time and effort that we put into them.
-Ian Davis
