ENGINEERING DAY RETURNS WITH A NEW PROJECT
Alden Elementary School students had fun while learning about science during Engineering Day on May 9, which was held during National Engineers Week.
Students participated in an activity called “Straw-way Over the Hudson” where they had to work in teams to make a bridge out of 12 straws, five notecards and tape and see how many pennies it could hold. Eleven engineers from IBM and GlobalFoundries assisted students when needed on how to make their bridges stronger.
During a session in teacher Ashley Gregor’s fourth grade class, IBM Engineer Heather Polgrean encouraged students to not give up if their test design did not pan out the first time.
“You can go back and try it again and that’s the great thing about engineering,” Polgrean said. “Think it through, but don’t be afraid to test it out.”
Polgrean noted that engineering, while not always reliant on math, requires people with drastically different skills to collaborate to complete a project.
“There’s a lot of different ways to solve these problems,” Polgrean explained. “It takes us working as a team to figure out any of these big problems.”
It was IBM Material Characterization Systems Hardware Developer Engineer TJ Avbovbo’s first time coming to Engineering Day. He was interested in volunteering because it gave kids a glimpse into a career path they may want to pursue. Additionally, it is an excellent way of exposing students to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (or STEM).
“It also gives them key attributes like being creative, innovative and the value of working in teams,” Avbovbo said. “It’s always amazing to see the kids have a smile on their face and also be interested in the project.”
The students in Gregor’s class could not agree more.
While the bridge Aaron Rochfort worked on did not hold as many pennies as he was hoping, he still enjoyed the activity and he would not hesitate to make another. His bridge held 13 pennies.
“It was pretty fun,” Rochfort said.
Neave Bartilucci’s bridge held 15 pennies and said she had a fun time working with her classmates on the project.
“It was very cool,” Bartilucci said. “We worked very well together.”