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Exploring opportunities in engineering

Twenty-seven students from Clintonville Middle and High School recently attended the Engineering Expo at the University of Wisconsin Madison.

They had the opportunity to tour the engineering campus, visit state of the art laboratories, view current discoveries and technologies, and talk with students and scientist who made those advances. Students were able to connect what they are learning in their current math, science and technology classes to the new inventions on display.

Responses from students made the long trip worthwhile.

“I was able to see and do a ton. Since the expo was put on by college students, we were able to get a sneak-peek of a wide variety of prototypes that they had created just to show. Some of the things that our group did was eat edible water bottles, package our own Skittles, eat liquid nitrogen ice cream, watch tin melt and reshape in about 5-8 seconds, and my favorite part; build a craw for a robot,” said one high school student.

“The engineering expo in Madison was an excellent experience. Not only was it a lot of fun, it was also very educational and exciting to have your mind opened up to a whole new world of math, science and education. Here at Clintonville, we don’t really have many of the opportunities that other schools have with their robotics classes or things of that sort. It was very cool and exciting to be exposed to things like that at the expo. It was very cool to see all of the inventions that the students came up with and also to hear what their jobs are like in the real world,” said another high school student.

“I now really want to become a mechanical engineer,” said a middle school student.

“I think this trip was very important. It told me how things worked and what the latest technology was able to do. It was a very exciting trip. I hope to go next year,” said another middle school student.

“I learned that there are many different fields in the big field of engineering. I now am interested in the biomedical engineering field. I would like to work for companies that will improve sports braces,” said another high school student that went on the trip.

“I was able to see how different chemical structures affect the reaction of a substance under different temperatures. I talked with some college students. I most remember how disgusting an edible water bottle is. I am now interested in how different elements react with one another. I am curious about how many different fields of engineering there are,” said another high school student.

The expo was created to educate middle and high school students about the job opportunities in the field of engineering. Engineering has become a multidisciplinary profession combining the fields of science, mathematics, technology, chemistry, and many others.

Engineers are problems solvers in a vast range of areas: medicine, construction, printing, technology, ecology, industry, robotics, agriculture, natural resources and others. Major companies such as Ford, Kohler, Alliant Energy, AT&T, Bemis, John Deere, Rockwell, 3M, ATC, Cargill, Dell, GE and Google were major exhibitors and contributors.

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