South View class teaches principles of engineering

DANVILLE – South View Middle School seventh-graders Jelicia Cotton and Ashylee Harrier weren't sure what to expect in their new pre-engineering class.

After a few days, they discovered it involved doing things they like to do: drawing, building, using the computer and working with classmates.

"You're not just sitting," Jelicia said recently, as she and Ashylee worked on their first project – building an air racer out of construction paper. "You get to do a lot of fun things."

They're also learning math and science as well as skills such as brainstorming, problem-solving and working as a team that they'll need in the future whether or not they become engineers, their teacher, Jason Smith, said.

The class uses the Gateway to Technology curriculum that teaches middle-school students engineering principles and technology through hands-on activities. Funded through the Danville school district and the Kern Foundation, it was implemented at South View and North Ridge Middle School in the hopes of interesting younger students in Project Lead the Way, a similar high school curriculum, and careers in engineering and technological fields.

"We have a huge shortage of engineers in the United States, particularly women and minorities," Smith said. "I think many students don't understand what engineers do or all of the areas they work in.

"It's not just designing roads," he continued, adding the program shows students a multitude of applications from the mechanical and medical fields to the video game industry.

South View's program was sidelined for a year. But when Smith came two years ago, he introduced a couple of teaser activities that overlapped with some science lessons – building a car using a straw, toothpicks, note cards and Life Savers and building a bridge out of popsicle sticks.

Last year, Smith piloted a 9-week design and modeling course for eighth-graders. This year, he expanded it to students in all grades.

All sixth-graders take a nine-week flight and space course, while all seventh-graders take a nine-week design and modeling course. Eighth-graders can take a full semester as electives – an advanced design and modeling course the first nine weeks, and an automation and robotics course the second nine weeks.

"It's an exciting addition to the school," Principal Brenda Yoho said. "It provides our students with an opportunity to have a hands-on approach to learning."

"In my opinion, that's how students learn best," Smith added.

During one group of seventh-graders' first week, Smith introduced a lesson on precision measurement. The next day after receiving project guidelines, students launched into building their air racers.

"The brainstorming, design and drawing has been done," the teacher said, as students measured the body panel and fins on construction paper. "Now you have to model the engineer's ideas and create a prototype."

Students will then test them on a race track. "You have to make sure it doesn't have any flaws," Smith said. If there are, he instructed them, "keep experimenting until it works correctly and runs faster."

For the rest of the period, students focused on drawing and cutting, sometimes asking a classmate for help. They worked until they got it right. "That's the beauty of the program," Smith said. "In traditional classrooms, the teacher provides all of the information they need to know. In this class, they're given a problem, and they have to come up with the solution, or work with classmates to figure it out. Peer interaction and peer tutoring becomes very prevalent."

In another class, eighth-graders Andrew Nelson and Joby Means, who have been studying mechanical gears and how they are used, build a bevel gear with materials from a kit.

"This was easy," Joby said, turning a crank to make the gears move. Soon, students will learn how to move the gears using a computer program.

Like Jelicia and Ashylee, Andrew said he didn't know whether he would like the pre-engineering activities, which he started in sixth grade. But Smith's classes quickly became his favorite, and he's looking forward to continuing them in high school and college.

"I just like building things and working with my hands," Andrew said.

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