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Tri-County Technical College Visits New Prospect Elementary to Promote STEM |
ANDERSON COUNTY - Tri-County Technical College and New Prospect Elementary School are looking for ways both schools can better teach math and science.
Students from Tri-County Tech’s general engineering technology program visited New Prospect fourth-graders Thursday in Anderson to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning. The college students demonstrated basic tenets of engineering and physics, like conductivity, electromagnetism and stored energy, with experiments constructed from common household materials.
Angelica Trumbower and Timothy Dent made a “ferrofluid” from print toner ink and vegetable oil to show how magnets affect the iron particles in the liquid. The fourth-graders watched how the fluid made different shapes as Trumbower and Dent waved a magnet over and around it.
“They asked all kinds of questions: What is that stuff? How is it moving like that? How does it make those shapes?” said Trumbower, a 21-year-old graduate of D.W. Daniel High School who plans to use her engineering degree from Tri-County to study computer engineering at Clemson University.
“I think the best question was, ‘What kind of creature is that?” said Dent, 25, a Gilbert native who plans to look for electrical engineering work when he graduates from Tri-County.
Several students tried and failed to lift “Thor’s Hammer” off an iron plate at another booth. Malachi Henry, 9, was able to lift the hammer off the plate — after the Tri-County students unplugged the electromagnet hidden inside the hammer.
In a nearby classroom, the Tri-County students helped fourth-graders make homemade variation of the board game Operation, with pieces of candy replacing bones.
Israel Delgado, 9, was able to get the candy without lighting up the patient’s nose or getting a shock. He said math is his favorite subject, but he doesn’t see himself becoming an engineer.
“I think I want to be a wrestler, or something like that,” Israel said.
Dorian McIntire, who runs Tri-County’s general engineering technology program, says it’s important to get children thinking about science, technology, engineering and math early on to better prepare for the advanced manufacturing jobs that local and state officials are attracting to South Carolina.
McIntire has begun working with New Prospect’s Sandy Eudy and other STEM educators to develop curricula that draw on the cheap technologies his students displayed Thursday. He said too many elementary and secondary STEM programs rely upon expensive software and other materials that don’t show how things work from the ground up.
McIntire routinely welcomes entry-level engineering students at Tri-County who didn’t learn basic mechanical information in elementary, middle or high schools, such as why flipping a switch makes a light come on or how to use tools.
“When they first come, I am seeing that I have to do a little more than in past years to get them through because there can be a problem,” McIntire said, referring to some of his new students’ lack of mechanical savvy. “And it’s a common problem. I think we’ve got to be less afraid about letting students use tools and let them get more hands-on experience. You can’t expect everything to go perfect — you’re going to learn from mistakes.”
Eudy works with students in all five elementary grades on basic engineering concepts. They start a project at the ground floor and examine each step of the process.
“We talked about roller coasters, so they had to build one out of paper and it had to work,” Eudy said. “And during that, we talked about acceleration and velocity and their connections to when it comes to roller coasters.”
Trial and error is as important, too.
“I let them do it and if they make mistakes, I say that’s OK,” Eudy said. “We want to make mistakes because that leads us to improve things. I have them adjust something until they get right; that’s better because they do it themselves and see how it works.”
Copyright 2015 Journal Media Group. All rights reserved.
Students from Tri-County Tech’s general engineering technology program visited New Prospect fourth-graders Thursday in Anderson to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning. The college students demonstrated basic tenets of engineering and physics, like conductivity, electromagnetism and stored energy, with experiments constructed from common household materials.
Angelica Trumbower and Timothy Dent made a “ferrofluid” from print toner ink and vegetable oil to show how magnets affect the iron particles in the liquid. The fourth-graders watched how the fluid made different shapes as Trumbower and Dent waved a magnet over and around it.
“They asked all kinds of questions: What is that stuff? How is it moving like that? How does it make those shapes?” said Trumbower, a 21-year-old graduate of D.W. Daniel High School who plans to use her engineering degree from Tri-County to study computer engineering at Clemson University.
“I think the best question was, ‘What kind of creature is that?” said Dent, 25, a Gilbert native who plans to look for electrical engineering work when he graduates from Tri-County.
Several students tried and failed to lift “Thor’s Hammer” off an iron plate at another booth. Malachi Henry, 9, was able to lift the hammer off the plate — after the Tri-County students unplugged the electromagnet hidden inside the hammer.
In a nearby classroom, the Tri-County students helped fourth-graders make homemade variation of the board game Operation, with pieces of candy replacing bones.
Israel Delgado, 9, was able to get the candy without lighting up the patient’s nose or getting a shock. He said math is his favorite subject, but he doesn’t see himself becoming an engineer.
“I think I want to be a wrestler, or something like that,” Israel said.
Dorian McIntire, who runs Tri-County’s general engineering technology program, says it’s important to get children thinking about science, technology, engineering and math early on to better prepare for the advanced manufacturing jobs that local and state officials are attracting to South Carolina.
McIntire has begun working with New Prospect’s Sandy Eudy and other STEM educators to develop curricula that draw on the cheap technologies his students displayed Thursday. He said too many elementary and secondary STEM programs rely upon expensive software and other materials that don’t show how things work from the ground up.
McIntire routinely welcomes entry-level engineering students at Tri-County who didn’t learn basic mechanical information in elementary, middle or high schools, such as why flipping a switch makes a light come on or how to use tools.
“When they first come, I am seeing that I have to do a little more than in past years to get them through because there can be a problem,” McIntire said, referring to some of his new students’ lack of mechanical savvy. “And it’s a common problem. I think we’ve got to be less afraid about letting students use tools and let them get more hands-on experience. You can’t expect everything to go perfect — you’re going to learn from mistakes.”
Eudy works with students in all five elementary grades on basic engineering concepts. They start a project at the ground floor and examine each step of the process.
“We talked about roller coasters, so they had to build one out of paper and it had to work,” Eudy said. “And during that, we talked about acceleration and velocity and their connections to when it comes to roller coasters.”
Trial and error is as important, too.
“I let them do it and if they make mistakes, I say that’s OK,” Eudy said. “We want to make mistakes because that leads us to improve things. I have them adjust something until they get right; that’s better because they do it themselves and see how it works.”
Copyright 2015 Journal Media Group. All rights reserved.
