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Building relationships: New program helps ninth-graders apply science
It’s 2 p.m. on a sunny Tuesday afternoon in July—the kind of intensely hot, windless Wisconsin day that turns asphalt to mush. A yellow school bus slowly lurches along a dusty gravel road that encircles the Dane County Landfill. Bus windows ratchet wide open as sticky passengers hope to capture a fleeting breeze.
Then the bus stops, and a less welcome odor—the sour stench of decaying garbage—rides the heat through the open windows.
Engineering Career Academy enabled incoming high-school freshmen to learn about environmental processes and use that knowledge to design creative solutions to a pollution-cleanup problem. (large image) |
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A couple of the passengers—a dozen soon-to-be high school freshmen, two teachers and a May ’07 biomedical engineering alumna—cover their noses and fidget in their seats, eager to move on. But most listen attentively as solid-waste engineer Robert Regan talks about how this landfill processes tons of Dane County solid waste each year—and as a result, converts methane into energy for county residents.
This field trip was among several environmentally focused activities offered during the inaugural Engineering Career Academy (ECA), July 14 to 21. This new summer camp provided the 12 students—all targeted minorities interested in math and science—with opportunities to see engineers at work, and then, faced with their own pollution-cleanup dilemma, to be the engineers. “We had the kids work on one particular problem—an environmental solutions problem—and we backed that experience up with seeing some things that were related,” says Engineering Professional Development Professor Philip O'Leary, ECA coordinator. “In addition, we basically ran a little preview course on what high-school subjects are going to look like in biology, chemistry, physics and problem-solving skills.”
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Through classroom, laboratory and field activities, ECA instructors helped the students to apply their grade-school science, says Lisa Stec, a Madison LaFollette High School science teacher who taught ECA with Racine Starbuck Middle School teacher Karen Kruse. “Part of our goals were to help them be successful in high school, help them be successful in college, and help them be successful engineers,” says Stec. “So, we tried to reinforce what they’ve learned in their school science classes—maybe take it a step further when we could—and then apply that to a problem so that they’re not just saying, ‘What do I need to know this for,’ but rather, ‘Wow—I need to know this because engineers use that information here.’”
Each ECA day had a different theme, including ecosystems, chemistry, biochemistry, and mechanics and robotics. Morning classroom sessions focused on the science; afternoon lab activities and field trips set the science in context.
On the menu of educational activities were tours of the landfill, a fish hatchery, and the UW Space Place; water sampling on Lake Mendota; and lectures about groundwater, environmental phosphorus, and sustainable engineering, among others. “I think the class about physics—like the work, distance, force, power—that was all interesting,” says Madison West High School incoming freshman Suhas Kodali.
Electrical engineering piqued the interest of Milwaukee Heritage Christian High School incoming freshman Synclair Brown. “I wanted to learn a lot more about engineering and this was a fun experience,” she says. “I especially liked learning about electrical circuits and how they work, and the volts and amps.”
ECA students, who bunked in lakeshore dorm Kronshage Hall, also participated in several evening social activities, including a pontoon boat ride on Lake Mendota, mini golfing and a movie night. Their parents returned for “graduation” on the final day of the program, when the students presented lessons learned from their pollution-cleanup problem.
College of Engineering Assistant Dean for Diversity Affairs Steven Clark calls the first-time Engineering Career Academy a huge success. “Not only did we accomplish our goals, but we created new relationships with prospective students and parents, high school counselors, and math and science teachers,” he says.