Students get hands-on engineering lessons

On track for math, science careers

Intelligencer Journal

Jun 16, 2009 00:01 EST

By BRIAN WALLACE, Staff Writer

Marelly Guzman liked to play with LEGO® when she was younger, but her dream job was to become a model.

The high school junior later realized she was "too shy" for modeling, but still enjoyed "building stuff, creating different stuff."

That love of tinkering led Marelly to enroll in a new pre-engineering course at McCaskey East High School this year.

Marelly enjoyed the class so much she's planning to study architecture or engineering at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.

The teenager is one of the 200-plus Lancaster County high school students who got a jump start on math- and science-related careers in a first-year program designed for students not naturally inclined toward those subjects.

The science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classes have proven so successful, the three schools that offer them plan to add five new courses and enroll 150 more students next year.

"We couldn't have asked for anything better," Mark Reinhardt, associate principal of Hempfield High School, said of the program.

"The students and faculty have bought into this, and the parents see the benefit of it. The feedback we've gotten from them has been tremendous."

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The STEM curriculum challenges students to design, build, measure and test products and processes while learning math and science theory.

The classes appeal to "kids who just like to fidget and take things apart," said Reinhardt, whose school had 104 students take the introductory engineering course this year.

Hempfield plans to add two more courses enrolling about 50 additional students next year.

McCaskey East also is adding a second course, and Manheim Township High School will double its STEM offerings from two to four classes next year.

Students work in labs equipped with computer-aided design software and rapid prototyping machines (also called 3D printers) that enable them to build three-dimensional models of their designs from ABS plastic.

The labs also feature laser engravers and miniature wind tunnels so students can test the aerodynamic properties of the cars and airplanes they design.

At McCaskey East, Marelly and 85 other students worked in teams to design scale models of Hummers and locomotives, which they created on the 3D printer.

They also brought in objects from home, such as pens, bird houses and candy dispensers, disassembled them, measured their parts with a micrometer and created their own detailed designs for the objects — with improvements — on the computer.

All the parts had to function and fit together for the students to get full credit for their designs.

"I like that you get to design anything you want, however you want," said Stephanie Santos, a McCaskey East junior. "You get to pick the color, the size, everything."

The classes appeal to students who are comfortable with computers but not inspired by academic science or math courses, said Joey Rider-Bertrand, Manheim Township's coordinator of science and technology programs.

"The idea of inventing and designing and creating — all the hands-on things — is more appealing to kids because of its creativity," she said.

Manheim Township had 22 students enrolled in its two courses this year.

Next year, it plans to enroll 64 students in those classes and two new ones: aerospace engineering and biotechnical engineering.

Students in this year's program worked on teams to make a device that functions like an assembly line and sorts marbles into different piles based on their color.

They also used a computer program to build models of bridges that they tested using statics, which involves analyzing loads on physical systems in equilibrium.

"Some of the students will say, 'I really like this. This really floats my boat,' " instructor Rich Nolt said. "And some students will say, 'I don't really like this. I like the electrical systems better.'

"It really helps to guide them into a field they like."

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Nolt's students enjoyed working in the STEM lab so much, they talked him into establishing an after-school club where they built and raced miniature Formula 1 race cars.

The students designed the cars with a computer program called Autodesk Inventor and built the cars from balsa wood with a computer numerical control router.

"The best part is taking a block of wood and having it be refined down to a car like this," sophomore Nick Sumoski said recently as he held a race car the students made.

"There was no way we could have done what we did on just paper," said classmate Zack Vanderlaan. "It would have been a big mess."

While class projects can be fun, the courses are academically rigorous.

Students must pass a test similar to a college final exam for every subject they complete, and within two years, students will be eligible to earn college credits.

Pupils who complete STEM courses before studying engineering in college "will have a leg up on other students who never had a class like this," Nolt said.

The courses were developed by Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit that 10 years ago partnered with schools, universities and private industry in New York to fill America's "engineering gap."

China, India and other countries have been producing far more engineers in recent years than the United States.

The STEM program is designed to reverse that trend by attracting nontraditional students, especially girls and minorities, to engineering and design careers.

In addition to building, designing and testing things, students get to learn firsthand what it's like to work in the field.

Several McCaskey East students participated in the Architecture Construction Engineering mentor program.

Every other week, they worked with mentors in the three fields at their offices to create designs for a new YMCA building in Lampeter.

Manheim Township recently hosted an engineering career day that brought professionals to the school to meet students.

And Hempfield students earlier this year won the "best design" award in a Project Lead the Way design competition judged by engineers from Carpenter Technology.

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Not all STEM students stay in the program. Some find engineering is not a field they're interested in. Others find the courses too challenging.

But most of the students who enrolled in the first-year program plan to take a second course next year.

McCaskey and Hempfield will add Principals of Engineering classes next year, and Hempfield also plans to offer digital electronics.

Jackeline Yepez, a McCaskey East freshman, said she enrolled in the STEM program because "it sounded interesting."

The engineering class made her realize she can combine several of her interests in one career, she said.

"I feel like I have a chance at accomplishing what I want to accomplish because I like engineering, and I like computers and I like building stuff."

Reinhardt said the STEM program has provided a good return on the district's investment of about $74,000 for equipment and teacher training.

In addition to preparing students for college, the classes give them technical skills they can use in industrial settings right out of high school, he said.

"As we move into a new era of technology, this is something that's going to benefit our kids," he said.

"To get more than 100 kids involved every year, it's a very good investment. We'd do it again in a heartbeat."

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com