Eighth grade students from Spencer Van Etten school district participated in “Engineers Day” at Lockheed Martin, located at 1801 Rte. 17C in Owego, N.Y. on Friday, March 27. One hundred-twenty students from eight school districts in Tioga and Broome Counties attended and were engaged in fun activities that helped promote the studies of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). (Photos by JoAnn R. Walter)
Pictured are Owego-Apalachin eighth grade students beginning the process of designing protective packaging for the team oriented egg drop challenge, one of several fun activities held at Lockheed Martin’s “Engineers Day” to promote the studies of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Eighth grade students from Candor work on building a bridge made of spaghetti and gumdrops at the March 27 “Engineers Day” at Lockheed Martin in Owego. Software Engineer, Jenn Kotski, coached the students during the activity. Later, the students’ work was put to the test in a working lab, which checked for shock and vibration aspects of their design.
Eighth grade students from eight Tioga and Broome County schools recently attended an Engineers Day event at Lockheed Martin, located at 1801 Route 17C in Owego, N.Y. The annual event, hosted by Lockheed Martin since 1998, engaged students in fun activities, which helped promote the studies of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
According to the U.S. Department of Education, projected STEM jobs will increase significantly by 2020, with more jobs available in science, technology, engineering and mathematics than other occupations. Examples of occupations expected to see the most growth include information security, computer systems analysts and software developers, environmental protection, statistics, medical scientists and biomedical engineering.
STEM teaching initiatives are practiced in high schools nationwide to help prepare students for postsecondary education and STEM related careers. Helping with this effort are companies like Lockheed Martin.
“The goal of Engineers Day is to inspire kids about potential career options and to show them how the math and science they’re learning now is applied,” explained Ron Crawford, Senior Manager of Engineering at Lockheed Martin. Crawford also shared that by involving eighth grade students, on the cusp of going into high school, is the opportune time to spark their interest in engineering.
Students from Candor, Newark Valley, Owego-Apalachin, Spencer-Van Etten, Tioga Central, Waverly and Binghamton East and West participated in hands-on activities at Engineers Day including a gumdrop bridge building activity, egg drop challenge and participated in a flight simulation exercise.
Combining fun and engineering concepts, student teams were tasked with building a bridge made out of gumdrops and spaghetti, which then underwent tests for vibration and shock in the same lab that Lockheed Martin engineers work in on a daily basis.
Another design task challenged students to create protective packaging for cooked eggs, which were dropped from selected height levels into paper cups filled with packing peanuts. Most eggs survived the fall, and students left with a better understanding that processes often are modified several times before implementation.
Jenn Kotski, a software engineer at Lockheed Martin and one of 60 volunteers at Engineers Day who interacted with students, explained, “These simple activities help expose students to the engineering field.” Kotski added, “Whatever interests a student has, there is an engineering field to match that.”
That is exactly what happened with Kotski. A gradudate of Owego Free Academy and volunteering at Engineers Day for ten years, Kotski was an “eighth grade engineer for a day” herself. Although the activities are slightly different now, a challenge of taking apart a blender when she participated played a part in inspiring her to pursue engineering as a career.
Spencer Van-Etten Guidance Counselor, Dan Craven, shared that his group of students were excited to attend the Lockheed Martin event. Within his group of eighth graders, Craven recognized sincere interest and was already able to identify future engineering potential in some of the students.
Another Engineers Day for additional schools will be held at Lockheed Martin prior to the end of the school year.
