Making Engineers From Scratch : Program Joins Industry Professionals With Aspiring Young Scientists, Tinkerers in Schools
A small wooden car rolled across the carpet of the reception area in the advanced intelligence division of a high-tech manufacturing firm and coasted to a stop about 30 feet later.
The usually quiet offices were suddenly filled with the sighs and applause of young children.
More than youngsters, members of the Future Scientists and Engineers of America, were competing Saturday to see whose hand-built vehicle, powered only by unwinding rubber bands, displayed the most speed, power and intelligence.
How does one judge a car’s intelligence?
For that category, contestants were required to have their cars travel five feet in one direction. Then, the cars were supposed to stop, reverse their direction--without any assistance from the builders--and travel backward to the starting point.
It was no easy assignment. Only a handful of the 12 entries managed to succeed in that area of competition.
The trick was to store the energy expended while moving forward and to use it to propel the vehicle backward. Some contestants wound the rubber band around the axle so that it unwound to a certain length and then snapped back.
A nonprofit organization, Future Scientists is an innovative partnership between schools and industry that is trying to promote science and engineering among youths, especially girls and minorities, in grades eight to 12.
Although it began only a year ago, 16 schools in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties have joined the weekly, after-school program, and more than 300 children are members.
Each school is assigned a corporate sponsor, who provides building materials, and engineers who serve as mentors. Each school has teachers volunteer for the program.
Major companies such as Rockwell International, Chevron, McDonnell Douglas, Aerospace Corp. and Hewlett Packard support the program.
The program’s founder, George Westrom, assistant general manager of the advanced intelligent machines division at Odetics Inc., was inspired to start the program after reading reports two years ago that the number of future engineers would shrink drastically because schoolchildren lacked training in science and mathematics.
“The conclusion was that a dramatic change in the direction of the kids would have to be made if we wanted to remain a technical nation,” he said. “And I viewed it as a risk to our way of life.”
Westrom has participated in career days at various schools ever since he became an engineer, but he wanted to do more than just come by to address students one day a year.
“The idea of FSEA was to capture the imagination when they are young and to hold on to them,” he said.
Westrom described what occurred when he recently asked students at St. Cecilia’s Catholic School in Tustin how many of them knew what an engineer did. Only two raised their hands. When he asked if they knew what a doctor did, everyone responded.
“Cars, cities, the floor they sit on, their skateboards--all are products of engineers,” he said. “These children are the future scientists and engineers and unless they start now, they won’t know what to do.”
Westrom patiently explains what an engineer is to anyone who might not know: “It’s easier to say what engineers do rather than what they are. They analyze design. They build and test things. They try to improve things. An engineer is a good mathematician, physicist, and good at recording and observing what happens.
“People think we know what we’re doing, but that’s not true, because you’re building new things and always trying to improve them,” he said.
In addition to the rubber-band-powered cars, the children have built catapults that must launch a tennis ball 50 feet onto a target. A future project is to build a 24-inch wooden bridge that can bear 50 pounds in nine different places.
The engineers never provide specific instructions for the projects. Rather they set the basic rules and the objectives. For example, in building the cars, the students were told their craft must fit in a shoe box and be powered only by rubber bands. The young engineers always work with partners.
Ervin Wade, 11, of Imperial Middle School in La Habra belonged to a school geology club before, but said Future Scientists is “way better and more fun.”
“You get to come up with your own ideas and then make them real,” he said excitedly. “You work like you’re a real scientist.”
When Randi Trontz, principal at Kraemer Junior High School in Placentia, was offered the chance to open a chapter, she accepted it eagerly. Now her school has 30 members.
“The students have learned about a whole new world of engineering that they never knew about. And I think they have also gained self-esteem and confidence through doing things they’ve never done before.”
“I think it’s an excellent program,” said Anne Long, a teacher at Travis Ranch Elementary School in Yorba Linda, whose son is in the program. “Jeff loves it. It gives him something to look forward to and he talks about his projects at home.”
