Students from ten middle schools gathered to spend a day with the Engineering Ambassadors

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!

The fall semester wouldn't be complete without a visit to The Mount!

Today we made our third visit to The Mount St Joseph's Academy, always a favorite visit for the EAs. We had a full day visiting several physics and biology classes. Our EAs facilitated a wide array of in-class activities, from tissue engineering to squishy circuits, to learning about the red bull space jump and designing their own parachutes.

It wasn't just the extraordinary hands-on activities that made this day so great, it was also the amazing team of EAs. What made this visit even better than a year before? We had TWO new hands-on activities that were developed by our EAs specifically for this trip. Terri Creech and Lola Buonoma developed a tissue engineering presentation for the Honors and AP biology classes along with an activity to have students design their own medical device out of common household items, and then use this device to dissect a marble from a cup of water. It was a challenging design problem, yet the ladies took it on with energy and enthusiasm. Terri and Lola also ran the Rube Goldberg activity for a couple physics classes, which is always a  great success!

The second new activity of the day was a design of a prosthetic limb activity developed by Abby Krieder and Kathleen Prilutski. Using toilet plungers, sponges, bubble wrap, duct tape and rope, students were given the task of designing a prosthetic limb. From the images below, you can see this was activity was a great success. Students design their limb for a specific type of shoe, and some even dared to try them on!







In addition to all the Bio Activities, the physics classes learned about the engineering behind the recent red bull space jump. Students then designed, built and tested their own parachutes! Amy Szabo and Arielle Green were great design advisers and they even held a challenge for the team with the safest parachute by testing them to see which parachute took the longest amount of time to land.

With over 5 different activities being run throughout the day, we were kept on our toes, but one thing that did not surprise us was the talent and creativity we saw from the ladies at The Mount.

The Ellis School receives a visit from the Engineering Ambassadors

Today the Engineering Ambassadors made their first visit to the Ellis School. We saw students from 5th to 12th grade, and despite the age difference one thing all the students had in common was their enthusiasm for learning, their inquisitive minds, and ample creativity. We kicked the day off with a large assembly to all the students, 5th-12th grade. Its not typical to give a middle and high school presentation at the same time, but our EAs took on the challenge and were greeted by great interest and an overflow of questions from students from every grade. It was such a welcoming start to our day at the Ellis School.

Throughout the day, we had three teams of EAs presenting various hands-on activities to science and math classes. Terri Creech and Dana Goldblum ran the Oil spill activity in 6th and 8th grade science classes, showing students environmental impact is an important consideration in engineering.

Kacie Long and Hannah Seeger showed off lasers to AP Physics and AP Chemistry classes then took a break to help the 5th graders design roller coasters. The fifth graders won the day for enthusiasm, energy, and a will to make it work!

Sarah Krisher and Kathleen Prilutski focused on the biology classes creating a new presentation on Biomimicry and enhancing it with clips from popular TED talks. The students were awed by the ways in which nature inspires design.

It was a day full of curiosity, learning, and inspiration for the future generation of engineers at The Ellis School!

Engineering Ambassadors visit Peters Township High School

What better day to visit a chemistry classroom than Mole Day? Well lucky for our Engineering Ambassadors thats exactly what day it was! One of the teachers even made MOLasses cookies for the class in celebration! Now this wasn't the only perk the students were in for, they also had the opportunity to learn about engineering and participate in hands-on activities with the EAs!

Some of the chemistry classes received presentations from Kathleen Prilutski and Zach Meharey where they put their knowledge of protons to work to create circuits using play-doh and circuit components such as LEDs, battery packs and buzzers.


Brad Wile and Ashlea Krupa visited the other chemistry classes to talk about buoyancy and boat design to see how many pennies they could keep afloat using basic materials found around the house such as foil, straws, and popsicle sticks. The EAs tested the activity the night before and were able to keep 10 pennies afloat, the students blew them out of the water by keeping over 300 hundred pennies afloat in their superb boat designs!

The physics classes were in for a real treat, as Anna Rish and Matt DiNuzzo premiered a brand new presentation and activity, the Red Bull Space Jump! The presentation detailed the amazing engineering feats that made the space jump possible, then students were tasked with designing and building their own parachutes from tissue paper, foil, string, and a washer acting as the passenger. Designs were tested for flight time, with the longest flight time equaling the safest landing! The designs were innovative and unique providing a friendly competition among teams.

We wrapped up the day with a presentation about engineering careers, using the Pittsburgh Children's hospital to highlight the versatile and important roles of the engineers involved in building and maintaining the hospital.

EA's Second visit of the year brought us to James Buchanan Middle School

Today we are visiting James Buchanan Middle School, talking with 225 students about the awesome opportunities available to engineers. We started the morning early, meeting at 5:30am! It took two hours to see the sun come up, but no matter, we were energized from our Dunkin Donuts coffee and ready to share our passion for engineering!

Amy Szabo, Kylie Sheplock, and Kevin Zhou taught half the 8^th grade class about circuits, using the squishy circuits activity to reinforce their lesson. Who doesn’t love playing with play-doh? Success was evident by the constant buzz of the speakers going off throughout the classroom. Some teams even tried combining materials to make a mega circuit complete with LEDs, battery packs, and buzzers!

Amy Szabo helps students build their circuit (left). Squishy circuits in action (right).

Students ask questions during the 8th grade Assembly

Just next door, Alfredo Ramirez, Randy Schur, and Kathleen Prilutski talked about alternative energy sources, from solar and geo thermal, to nuclear and wind energy. They used the wind turbine kits to have students prototype and test different turbine designs. Students tested whether 2, 3 or 4 blades would be more efficient. Each design was tested using a box fan and teams counted how many washers their turbine could lift in a bucket. Other features that were tested included the material the blades are made of, plastic vs balsa wood, and the pitch angle of the blade. We learned that three blades are better than two, and 30 degrees is the optimal pitch angle for lifting the most washers.

The day ended with an assembly of the entire 8^th grade class to discuss the many options that lie ahead for the future engineers sitting before us. From manufacturing the delicious Hershey’s chocolate bar, to designing a roller coaster, from testing prosthetics to improve the life of amputees, to solving the world’s energy crisis, we learned that engineers have a wide variety of careers available to them.

Thanks to James Buchanan Middle School! We had an amazing and fun filled day! 

EA made their first visit of the school year to the Milton Hershey School

Today we visited the 8^th grade class at the Milton Hershey School. We kicked things off with an assembly to talk about career opportunities available to engineers. With a school overlooking the Hershey Theme Park, the careers talk was perfectly themed talking about how engineers make Hershey Park possible. From designing the roller coasters, organizing efficient lines to reduce wait times, to concocting delicious treats to snack on, engineers are responsible for every ounce of fun.

First visit of the school year was a great success!

After the assembly we split up to talk with all three 8^th grade science classrooms. Shane Haydt and Kathleen Prilutski got the chance to go more in depth about the workings of roller coasters, learning about kinetic and potential energy.  Students then were challenged to design and build their own roller coaster, using foam tubing and marble passengers, an extra challenge was that it had to have a loop! After finishing the coasters, students took a ride on a virtual roller coaster made by Shane himself. The Oohs and Aaahs sounded off as if the students were riding a real coaster!

Boni Li teaches students about pitch angle to improve the efficiency
of their wind turbines

Amy Szabo and Mike Coia taught their classes about circuits and then had students design their own “squishy circuits” using play-doh, batteries, and various sensors.

Alfredo Ramirez and Boni Li taught their classes about alternative energy sources. Ending the talk on wind energy, students then tackled the challenge of designing the most efficient wind turbine. Testing the optimum number of blades and the optimum pitch angle student's found success and were able to lift over 20 washers with the power of their wind turbine!

A big Thanks to Milton Hershey for the Giant Chocolate Bars they gave us as a Thank you! It even inspired a trip to Chocolate World, which is right across the street. Some say the best part was the milkshakes, but I say it was the dancing cows teaching me how Hershey bars are made!

UTC hosts Engineering Ambassadors at WPI

This past weekend, some of our new Engineering Ambassadors from Penn State visited Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts for the annual UTC Engineering Ambassadors Workshop. This was the first time the event has been held at WPI, and although it was a longer drive than usual, it was well worth the trip! New EAs from Penn State, U Conn, WPI, and RPI learned valuable communication skills mentored by their school’s veteran EAs. All students had the opportunity to participate in leadership training, where the EAs had to “jump rope as one” and compete to build the tallest balloon tower using only balloons, tape, and their best MacGyver skills.

The tallest balloon tower!

Christine Haas and Melissa Marshall rocked teaching, but one thing we’ve learned is that no one wants to come on stage AFTER an EA. This held true as the veteran EAs, led by Penn State’s Kacie Long, gave us valuable insights in how to give and receive constructive feedback. Did I mention they did this by reenacting American Idol’s Simon, Randy, and Paula, complete with auditioning speakers. It was insightful, energizing, informative and best of all, full of laughs!

Our new EA’s that participated include:

Randy Schur, Brad Wile,
Kevin Prince-Anokye, Lola Buonomo, Hannah Seeger, Lisa Meier,
Alfredo Ramirez, John Workinger,
Mike Coia, Lexi Greene, Beth Milligan, and Chelsea Walker

In addition to the skills learned and presentations that were created, our new EAs found time to let loose, creating an EA music video to “Gangnam Style” and “Hoedown, Throwdown” to appeal to the younger generation’s musical side. Video coming soon! 

2011-2012 in Review

Check out the amazing “Year in Review” video created by our very own Lauren Murphy!

Penn State hosts EA National Workshop

A map of attending institutions, including current partner
schools in yellow and new members in blue.

This summer Penn State hosted the first ever National Engineering Ambassadors Workshop. Attendees included 16 schools from across the country, our current partner schools, and several special guests from industry and academia.  The goal of this workshop was to share the Engineering Ambassador program with other schools interested in either starting their own program or improving an existing ambassador program. Students learned critical communication skills and participated in leadership training while academic advisors learned about how to successfully launch the program.

Student pairs from each school used the new assertion-evidence presentation style to develop a middle or high school presentation on the topic of their choice. Students spent many hours working with mentors from current programs to perfect their presentations and after a day of practice and critiques on Saturday. With Sunday came 20 presentations, from “Engineering the Olympics” to “Robotics in the Movies.”  The audience was delighted and awed, not only with the impressive communication skills, but also with the energy and passion each team showed for sharing their personal love of engineering.