Over one hundred students from surrounding middle schools gathered at North Allegheny Baierl Center to spend a day with the Penn State Engineering Ambassadors. We kicked the day off with a presentation on career opportunities within engineering, highlighting the unique opportunities awaiting future engineers. The students then broken into teams to experience some hands-on activities. A unique opportunity, this day was set up so that students participated in all three of our activities, prosthetic device design, Rube Goldberg challenge, and squishy circuits!
After the amazing success we had with the designing a prosthetic limb activity we recently debuted at The Mount, Taylor Puskar and Julia Meyer added some new flare to the activity by adding new building materials to the design kit. With these additional materials we saw students come up with some very innovative and creative prosthetic limbs!
A favorite for our middle school students, Mike Coia and Christine Hidebrand explained simple machines and challenged students to create a 5+ step Rube Goldberg machine. Marbles were flying, dominoes were tumbling, and students were using the build then test strategy to great success. The results were outstanding, with some teams completing 10+ steps before successfully capturing their pig!
If building an innovative prosthetic limb, and an intricate Rube Goldberg weren't enough, students learned how circuits work and then created their own during the squishy circuits activity. Students learned the difference between setting up parallel and series circuits, then were challenged to create the most creative circuit they could come up with. One team even created a monster with two LED eyes and a mean growl created by a buzzer buried deep within its body.
In all it was a fun-filled day of engineering spent with talented and creative students. We're already looking forward to coming back next year!
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