Summer SAVY, Session 4 Day 5, Engineering 101 (7th – 8th)
We finished off our week of Engineering 101 with chemical and biological engineering. Students cleaned up an oil spill (made of Crisco and cocoa powder) in a bowl of water and learned ways that chemical and biological engineers have developed to clean up oil spills in our oceans. Students learned about how chemical engineers can design processes that take raw chemicals and combine them in processes that create useful final products in the same way that mechanical engineers take raw materials and turn them into useful things.
Through learning about the world’s worst industrial disaster, the Bhopal Union Carbide Disaster, students grasped the importance of designing processes and plants with safety as the highest priority. Students also discovered the chemical processes that make PET, an extremely common polymer that is used in fabrics, plastic bottles, carpets, and many other things.
After lunch, we learned about biological engineering, including biomedical, biological systems, and biomimetics, and the challenges that are waiting for future biological engineers (maybe some of whom were in this class) to solve. We learned how prosthetics work, and we talked about The Great Stink. To finish the day and this week, we discussed the hard and soft skills that an engineer needs to be successful. Students asked excellent questions and were told about the opportunity to shadow engineers to learn more about a particular sub-type of engineering.
Dinner Table Questions:
- What type of engineering interests you the most? What kind of classes do you think they have to take?
- Which subtype of biological engineering makes prosthetics, and how do they work?
- What were some problems that the makers of the Oceangate mini submersible completely ignored? Why were they ignored?
- How can we use Gecko feet to make better adhesives?
- What does it take to be an engineer?
I hope you all have a great weekend. It makes me sad that I have reached the end of my week with your students; I will remember their enthusiasm and curiosity about engineering as I go back to my day job next week as a Mechanical Engineer. To my students: reach out to engineers or engineering companies in your area to see if they will let you shadow them. Do not be afraid of them saying no! To the parents: thank you for sending your students to my class this week; I enjoyed every second.