Teens take to Engineering Cool Stuff Camp

Sean Jacobs (third from left), an electrical engineering grad student, works with campers (from left) Marcus Smith, Jay Yadav and Hannah Cripps on the construction of their solar-powered model race car.

4:13 p.m., July 14, 2006--Among her other science adventures, Erin Lawler, a rising sophomore at Charter School of Wilmington, built a solar car and climbed into a wave pool to do experiments at UD's Engineering Cool Stuff Camp for budding engineers this week.

Eighteen middle- and high-school students spent five days, July 10-14, on the UD campus building robots, making rock candy, experimenting in wave pools, oxidizing titanium and devising their own inventions.

“I like the fact that it's a hands-on experience. It's along the lines of what we do at my school,” Lawler, who wants to study mechanical engineering, said.

Hands-on is the central idea, according to Kathleen C. Werrell, assistant dean for engineering outreach. “There's documented evidence that kids who are introduced to science early maintain their interest, but we know it has to be hands-on or we're going to lose them,” Werrell said.

Camper James Manning (left) confers with senior engineering student Cory Budischak about his solar-powered race car.

Students learned the properties of crystals and grew their own sugar crystal models Monday, with the hope that the sugar crystals would all turn into rock candy by the weekend. Just to be sure, Werrell made some rock candy of her own right before the camp.

Two activities were scheduled most days, many of them in sophisticated facilities most middle- and high-school students won't see until they enroll in college, including an ocean engineering laboratory and computer-aided-design (CAD) classrooms. Everything was hands-on--solar-car building, CAD, ping-pong experiments, oxidation's role in creating beautiful jewelry, building flying robots while studying what makes birds and insects take flight. Even getting wet in the wave pool at UD's Ocean Engineering Laboratory while competing to see which team could build the best breakwater.

During the week, Werrell and the staff rallied the campers to look around for a design opportunity of their own. At the camp's end, each student presented his own design at a science fair.

Chris Kerwien, a rising sophomore at John Dickinson High School who wants to become a mechanical engineer, was animated about Engineering Cool Stuff Camp after the first day. “I liked that we did a lot of cool activities,” Kerwien said. “We get to work with CAD design. We got to make some crystal models, which I thought was cool. We're going to be doing some robotics.”

Article by Kathy Canavan
Photos by Duane Perry

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