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.

J & J Medal Awarded to Penn State Engineering Ambassadors

The Penn State Engineering Ambassadors program has been named the winner of the 2012 Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc. Medal by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for its efforts in diversity and inclusiveness. 

A note from Johnson & Johnson states that the Engineering Ambassadors are being recognized  "for empowering student representatives through the development of communication and leadership skills that are critical in their role as Engineering Ambassadors and for their future professional success; for providing outreach presentations at middle schools and high schools to encourage careers in engineering and to recruit more women into the field; and for sharing the program’s success with other universities."

A special Thank You to Dr. Mary Frecker for nominating the Engineering Ambassadors Program for this award. The award will be presented at the ASME Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition on Nov. 11 in Houston, Texas.


See the write up by Penn State Live : Engineering Ambassadors win Johnson & Johnson medal

Students from across Pennsylvania visit Penn State hosted by the Engineering Ambassadors

A unique marshmallow tower built by students
from  North Allegheny Middle School

The Engineering Ambassadors hosted students from across Pennsylvania for a fun packed day of engineering culminating with a visit to the spring engineering design project showcase. EA's took students on their official engineering campus tour giving the students a chance to explore the Penn State campus.

Then we mixed things up with a hands-on activity. Some students learned about temperature phase changes by literally mixing things up to make ice cream! Other students tested their skills as architectural engineers to make the tallest free-standing marshmallow tower. 

The morning wrapped up with tours of Penn State's coolest laboratories, including a visit to either climbing to the top of the weather tower in the Meteorology Lab, a demo of a robotic rover in the Robotics Lab, a tour of the famous Berkey Creamery to see how ice cream is made, or a visit to the Learning Factory, OPEN Lab, Fame Lab, or the Exxcel Lab.

Arial view of the Design Project Showcase

In the afternoon students had the chance to walk around the Design Project Showcase where over 90 teams presented their senior capstone design projects. All projects were sponsored by industry partners and the projects spanned 11 engineering departments and five academic colleges. 

In total, over 300 middle and high school students attended the event, representing Milton Hershey School, North Allegheny Middle Schools and Moon High School.

Engineering Ambassadors visit Montour High School

The Engineering Ambassadors spent their last visit of the semester with Montour High School. Engineering Ambassadors visited 15 classes during their visit from your typical calculus, physics, bio and chem classes, to some unique course offerings such as digital electronics and principles of engineering. Students learned about lasers and their applications, how engineers mimic biology in their designs, and that an Intro to Physics class can make a taller and sturdier marshmallow tower out of spaghetti than their fellow students in AP Physics.

Kanda and Rachel test a student filtration system made from
soil, a coffee filter, sponges, rocks and other materials. 

The Engineering Ambassadors wrapped up their school visit with an assembly that discussed the many career opportunities in Engineering from careers in energy to entertainment. Students then had the opportunity to ask questions about engineering, Penn State, and life as an engineer.

Rachel, Ashley, Kanda, Meghan, Kim, and Eric wrapping up
a successful day with Montour High School!

Engineering Ambassadors win AAUW award

Several ambassadors and their adviser, Melissa 

Marshall, accept their award.

The Penn State Engineering Ambassadors were awarded the Gateway to Equity Award by the State College branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

The award was established by the Pennsylvania AAUW to recognize an individual, group, organization or business that has shown by action and philosophy the promotion of equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy or research.

The engineering ambassadors reach out to the community through visits to middle and high schools across Pennsylvania, using messages of "Changing the Conversation" to promote the field of engineering to women and girls. Engineering Ambassadors also engage with the community through campus tours and presentations to prospective students and their families, alumni, and industry partners.

Engineering Ambassadors visit North Hills Middle School

On their fourth visit of the semester, the Engineering Ambassadors took a trip to North Hills middle school. The Engineering Ambassadors challenged the student's perceptions of what an engineer does and students learned about the diverse career options available to engineers. Several classes were visited by the Engineering Ambassadors and students were asked to put their engineering thinking caps on for a hands-on activity. Some students stepped into the shoes of electrical engineers, learning how to light up an LED using play-doh "squishy circuits" while other students became roller coaster specialists, building roller coasters with dips, dives and loops, while making sure their marble passengers made it safely to the end of the ride. The EAs capped off the day with a special assembly talking about the many career opportunities available to engineers.

Engineering Ambassadors give "Careers" Presentation to Assembly at North Hills

EA's Largest visit yet to Bald Eagle Area Middle and High School

In our largest visit yet, eight Engineering Ambassadors visited Bald Eagle Area Middle and High School. This visit included an assembly for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders highlighting career opportunities for engineers and visits to over 20 science, math, and career exploration classes. 

Amy Szabo and Brett Corl teach the students about all the
cool things engineers can do with lasers.

Terri Creech and Alec Tanida encourage students to be
creative in designing the coolest roller coaster

Showcased above, physics students learned about lasers and all the innovative ways engineers use them. The 6th grade career exploration class put their creativity to the test to design the roller coaster with the most loops. Chemistry classes were in for a real treat! students made ice cream to demonstrate the effects of phase changes. In preparation for the National Rube Goldberg competition, some students made devices to catch the pig from angry birds using as many steps as possible in only 30 minutes! The calculus classes used their knowledge to find a way to filter out certain frequencies from a song, choosing to remove Justin Bieber's voice to make the song in one student's words "more appealing."

By the end of the day the EAs impacted 800 students! And we had a blast doing it! 

Putting the "EA" in Eagle! Go BEA Eagles!