Students get a feel for engineering

What is engineering? This summer, MESA high school juniors and seniors had the opportunity explore just this question in a unique four-week pilot program at MESA Centers at CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach, UC Santa Barbara, and University of the Pacific in Stockton.

The new course, aptly titled “What is Engineering?” is part of the Engineering Innovations program, a joint venture between MESA and Johns Hopkins University ’s Whiting School of Engineering. While Johns Hopkins has been running the program for a number of years, it is the first time that it was run on the West Coast. It is an abbreviated version of a 16-week course offered at Johns Hopkins. The ultimate goal of the program is to increase the number of engineers in the United States.

The 75 students who took the course had to have earned a 3.0 point average and completed prerequisite classes. Those who scored an A or B in the class were awarded college credit. For any student who passes and attends the University of the Pacific, the introductory engineering college course will be waived, saving each student $4,000. In addition, four outstanding students from the CSU Fullerton MESA Center won $2,500 scholarships funded by Western Digital.

The students explored various aspects of engineering through lectures and hands-on projects. The rigorous course required them to attend classes three days a week for five hours a day. An additional day each week was spent on field trips to local firms to observe what engineers do in real life. The students’ workload also included seven hours of homework each week, two term papers, a class presentation and a written final.

Vonna Hammerschmitt, the MESA Schools Program director at CSU Fullerton, called the hands-on approach one of the highlights of the program. “Most of the students don’t get to do these types of practical projects in school. Every single kid put their hands on every project and learned a lot from it.” The students worked on building bridges from spaghetti noodles, programming switchboards, experimenting with chemical distillation and other projects.

Idalia Servin, a junior at Santa Ana’s Segerstrom High School said that she did not anticipate the challenges involved in engineering. “I thought it was just about formulas but you have to think differently and be innovative,” she said. “Engineering connects in all areas.”

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