Discover Engineering Day...61 students and 35 engineers!

Pictured are the winners of the Burgess and Niple contest; Blog written by Mya Smith , Warren High School

On Friday, February 21st, Building Bridges to Careers held 4th Annual Discover Engineering Day at Washington State Community College.  The event was designed to give prospective engineering students a chance to find out more about the profession. The day was a hit! 

Sixty-One students attended the event from a total of ten schools: Belpre, Fort Frye, Frontier, Home School, Marietta, Parkersburg South, Shenendoah, Warren, Waterford, and Williamstown High School.

To begin the day, six separate companies or professional groups provided hands on activities and educational tasks for the students in attendance. These included:

Burgess and Niple- In this activity students were in competition to build the tallest tower possible that will withstand constant wind for 30 seconds. The only materials given were playing cards, tape and scissors. The team whose tower won the overall competition for the day consisted of George Carter, Owen Combs, and Victoria Smith. Congratulations for making the strongest tower!

The Chemours Company- In this activity,  students created slime and learned the reason for its consistency. The students also were able to ask questions about things like CO-Ops, working at a plant, and general engineering questions.

Magnum Magnetics- Students in this activity learned about LEAN principles, which is the idea of making continuous small improvements for the product of a large change in the end. They learned about this through a hands on LEGO airplane building project, starting with small teams and then as a whole group.

Marietta College- Students learned what Environmental Engineering is and why it is important. The greenhouse gas effect was explained to students along with the many causes of the effect. They were shown examples by measuring infrared radiation, CO2 emissions, and how these increase the greenhouse gas effect. 

Power System Engineering- To begin this activity, professionals taught what electrical engineering is and what you do in this division. They learned the basics of polarity, currents, and voltage. For the hands on portion of the activity students created basic electric circuits. Each group had the task of using a 9-volt battery, jumper wires, a resistor, and a breadboard to light two LED bulbs.

Washington State Community College- This group discussed WSCC’s new focus on robotics and how funding is now being given from the state to aid in robotic projects at the college level. Following the discussion, students used LEGOs to build a boat in a competition to see who’s boat could float the most quarters. 

After the student groups finished their activities, many engineering professionals came to participate in a networking lunch. This gave students an opportunity to ask questions and receive advice on getting involved in the field. In addition to those previously mentioned, the following companies joined students for a networking lunch: DuPont, Grimm Scientific, Inc. Pickering Associates, ODOT, Solvay, United Construction Company, IncI, and Washington Electric Cooperative with a total of approximately 35 engineers in attendance. The Building Bridges to Careers team would like to send a huge thank you to all those who came to talk to our students.

We asked students and company representatives questions about their experience at the event:

What was your favorite part of the Discovering Engineering Day?

The circuit building was my favorite, it was a fun activity. I wanted to learn more about electricity and circuit making so this was a great experience. - Sophomore at Marietta High School

Why were you interested in coming to the event today?

I want to be an electrical engineer when I grow up. Building circuits in the power system engineering event showed a small glimpse of what I would do on a day-to-day basis. -Sophomore at Warren High School

How did spending the day with professionals in the field impact you? 

I really learned what type of engineering I would and would not want to do. I think I’m most interested in civil and mechanical engineering.- Sophomore at Marietta High School

What did you like most about Discover Engineering Day?

I like interacting with the students and decide on what they would like to do. Helping them know the options of what’s out there and available. -Allyson Brezlor from Chemours

I’m a co-op right now so I enjoyed informing students on how you can get to where I am as a co-op and answer their questions. It’s nice that we could bring college aged students and full time employees so we could inform students of both sides of the profession. -Jessica Sacco from Chemours

Do you have any advice for students who want to go into the engineering field?

Try to get your foot in the door with a CO-Op to build your resume. Once you have experience it’s easier to get into the programs. It is also important to explore different programs and experiences to find what you really like.- Joe Matheny from DuPont

What do you enjoy most about Discover Engineering Day?

DuPont also does work with the Boys and Girls club to teach kids about engineering at an early age but it’s definitely more fun to work with college aged kids who are interested in the field.-Rebecca Reitzel from DuPont

Thank you to our sponsors, Washington Electric Cooperative, Burgess and Niple, Inc, Power System Engineering, and Chemours. Our team appreciates all the time and effort put into creating activities and the time given for our networking lunch. Without you all this event would not have been possible. 

For more information on Discover Engineering Day, contact Tonya Davis, BB2C Program Facilitator at 740-370-6399.