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Lincoln Students Get a Charge out of Raytheon | On
February 2 all of Grade 8 participated in an Engineering
Workshop at the Portsmouth, RI, Raytheon facility. The intent was to
introduce our students to the principles of engineering so that they
can appreciate this discipline and have a greater understanding of how
math and science work hand in hand.
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| The
students toured the Acoustics Lab, rotating between stations that
taught them about pitch and frequency of sound waves, how physical
energy can be converted into mechanical energy through transducers, and
about how sound travels through water. The next workshop involved
electrical circuits. The students built small switches that operated a
buzzer. Another workshop focused on constructing a tower from sheets of
paper, paper clips and rubber bands that could balance a tennis ball on
top. | 
| The
final workshop involved the www.mathmovesu.com
software. The students participated in the egg launch activity. They
prepared a
container for an egg that was catapulted and hopefully survived the
launch. 50% of the groups were successful at this task.
Each
workshop demonstrated the principles of engineering: having a list of
requirements, making a plan of design and gathering the materials,
implementing the design, testing it, and repeating the process as
needed until all of the requirements were met (while staying within
budget!). | 
| The
day began at 9:00 a.m. and ended at 2:00 p.m. throughout the
program our students were actively engaged. They volunteered easily,
asked questions and invested themselves in every task. The engineers
directing the activities were primarily young women engineers. During
lunchtime three of these women shared with the girls why they
studied engineering and what they love most about their jobs. They also
discussed the course work they took both in high school and in college.
Our students had several questions. The Raytheon engineers were very
impressed with how interactive they were throughout the day. | 
| Dr.
Kozel and Dr. Hibbitt (both science teachers), Ann Palms (art
teacher), Colleen Sweeney and Cathy DiChiaro (both math teachers)
accompanied the students on this trip. Lincoln School looks forward to
our continued collaboration with the Raytheon Company. A summer
workshop for upper school students is in the planning stage. | 
| The
realization
of the importance of STEM courses is a priority in the
upper school curriculum. A few of our 8th graders ended the day saying
that they might very well like to become engineers! They all enjoyed
their day. |
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