Naomi White
Jefferson High School
Whether constructing a vehicle that is powered by a mousetrap, creating a "Rube Goldberg" device, or building a balsa wood tower, engineering competitions have allowed my Jefferson High School students to solve practical problems using math and science skills.
I first became involved in engineering competitions when I entered a Carver Middle School team in the Los Angeles County Science Olympiad. Some of the area's best science high schools participate in this annual competition organized by LACOE.
However, while my inner-city students had a hard time winning medals in categories such as anatomy and general science when they were competing against students from more affluent districts, I discovered that my students' socio-economic background and limited English skills did not prevent them from excelling in the building contests. Using rolls of duct tape, assorted junk, and an endless abundance of tenacity, these South Central youngsters excelled and often outperformed their better funded competitors.
I began to add to and integrate these competitions into regular classwork. When I moved from Carver to its feeder high school, Jefferson, I used engineering as a way for students to demonstrate their understanding of physics concepts. Throughout the year, students are given a set of rules and an objective, and they work in teams to plan and construct devices related to the topic we are studying, such as the tensile properties of metals.
That topic led them to use a standard mousetrap to make a vehicle travel as far and fast as possible. They are required to draw plans prior to construction, write explanations of the scientific concepts involved in their projects and, through the LAEP Partners program, get help by being able to consult with working engineers. While the Jefferson students still participate in the Science Olympiad and other engineering contests, now they also compete against each other and other classes.
Originally, when I saw sample questions on college entrance exams, I worried that my students were being cheated out of traditional science education. Yet, increasingly, college engineering programs are using similar activities and, when some university students who had graduated from Jefferson came back to get advice for college projects from their younger but more experienced high school friends, I ceased worrying.
Some of my former Carver and Jefferson students are now doing well as engineering majors. The ability to set up an idea, test it, and manipulate it to make it work better is a fundamental skill in engineering, and engineering competitions focus students on reworking plans, learning modifications, and retesting. Although these projects are directly related to the engineering field, the abilities to use imagination to plan, to design and solve problems, to fix and improve things, and to employ scientific and mathematical concepts have unlimited applications to everyday experiences... and rewarding careers.
