Sorry for the lack of updates in recent weeks. Thursdays and Fridays have been very popular for teacher development days, wisdom teeth extraction, and (upcoming) Winter Break. On the bright side, this gave me a chance to work with Mike on putting together a field trip for our students. Coming in to this month we already had some ideas for where to go, but there was a lot of effort put into hashing out the details. This is something of a post-mortem on the trip, including some lessons learned.
The students arrived at the North Campus of the University of Michigan around 9:30am. There were about 24 students who were chaperoned by Carol, Mary Beth, Mike and myself. Everyone was a bit groggy in the morning, but we all had directions and maps of where we were going which made it much easier. The students were split into four groups: two for algebra students and two for calculus students. We then started on the labs...
Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (ERC/RMS)
The RMS is an NSF funded research center that focuses on anticipating future manufacturing techniques. Before even hitting the floor, our guide took us to the conference room to discuss what he'd be showing us. He wrote Newton's second law on the board and tried to explain it to the students. I'm not sure they really got what he was trying to explain, but they definitely remembered the equation as several wrote it on their surveys after the trip. At the very least, the students were able to see that there were equations underlying the demonstration. After the short lecture, we were taken to the water jet cutter, a system that uses a high velocity water stream combined with some sand to cut through almost anything. The tech had set the sytem up to cut out a small, and rather detailed, 'M'. Though there wasn't a lot to see during the cutting, I think many of the students were mesmerized by watching the computer controlled machine produce a perfect replica of the image on the screen.
Structural Engineering Laboratory
Next up, Matt led us through the Civil Engineering department's largest lab. Holding up small samples of concrete, he explained how adding tiny wires could significantly strengthen the largest of structures. The point sort of hit home when he pointed to the shattered concrete pillar behind him that was nearly 15 feet tall and at least a foot thick. He explained how the large hydraulic arms could slowly stress any attached sample, or how others could put up to 100 klbs of force on a small block. He also showed the results of his personal research; a hollow rectangular beam with 1" thick walls that had buckled and broken. Several students asked to see a test in action, however Matt pointed out that many of the tests could take hours to complete and the failure modes were rarely as explosive as the students hoped. Other subjects such as foundation stability, and how bridges affect the flow of water were also brought up.
Wilson Student Center
We then headed over to the College of Engineering's building for student projects. The building houses everything from solar car, to baja racing, human-powered submarine, concrete canoe, steel bridge, etc. Our guide, Michael, took some time to explain the origins of the project center and to emphasize that almost every single thing in the building was run by students. We later walked back to the cages to see some examples of the projects. Michael discussed how each team had a certain set of goals they were required to meet and again mentioned that everything from calculations, design, and manufacturing was student-run. The trial runs for the Formula One team, how to build a cargo-carrying glider, the dangers of being in a human-powered submarine and catastrophic bridge failure were all mentioned.
Subsonic Wind Tunnel
Chris took us on our final tour, this time of the subsonic wind tunnel. He explained some of the operating principles to the students, though the mention of Bernoulli's principle and settling chambers was probably a little much. More exciting, he put a model of a truck into the tunnel and showed the formation of streamlines. He then explained how the air collapse behind moving objects causes drag and some of the ways aerospace engineers try to minimize the effect. One thing that he got to mention was how valuable research experience is in finding a job, and while the students may not understand the magnitude of this right now, I think it was a great thing to mention. He also showed off a device that looked like a shuttlecock (surprisingly, no giggles) that was actually the receiver for a mid-air refueling tanker. Also unlike the other tours, he actually mentioned the amount of money such research can generate.
Student Panel
I'll admit, I was more focused on my lunch and finally getting a break during this section. We had four YHS alum come in to discuss how they got in to college and what the transition was like. Most of the questions were written out by the students beforehand which made it easy to answer in quick succession, but I think that it also removed any kind of interactive elements from the talk. Nevertheless, several of the questions and responses were very insightful. In particular, some of the comments about study habits were very well-thought out and hopefully made some impression on the students. I don't know if it was more encouraging or discouraging when the panelists listed their GPAs and each was > 3.9 (hell, I wasn't even close to that). Out of the whole process, I am just glad that it may have gotten some of my algebra students to start thinking about what it takes to get in to college.
Plasmadynamics & Electric Propulsion Laboratory
The final tour was given by my cohort, Mike. The tour circled around a 6m x 9m vacuum chamber which is used to simulate conditions in outer space. Mike and some of his labmates went over the principles of propulsion, what plasmas are, the costs involved in a research lab, free-fall, and other sci-fi-esque subjects. The students even got to see a rather unique thruster currently in testing; a first for myself as well and I even work in the field. I was surprised out how outgoing and positive the response was, even if the students were beginning to show signs of weariness. The tour ended with a bit of extra time so I had a chance to talk to some of the students one-on-one and also answer some of their additional questions about propulsion. And tell one to stop hitting the Pyrex window on the vacuum chamber.
Overall, the students behaved themselves very well. One problem was the nagging complaints about not enough time spent sitting which I didn't consider when planning. As the tour drew on, more and more students felt compelled to hold personal discussions and ignore whoever else was talking, but this was still a very small number. One of my biggest disappointments occurred when one of the more advanced students in my class was outright derogatory about the whole experience and refused to believe that math played any part in engineering. This was countered by some unexpected compliments about the trip from the students and their surprising amount of concentration. Carol sent the results of a survey she conducted afterward and almost every comment was positive about the trip.
Lessons Learned
- 20 minutes is a good length for a tour, but 15 minutes might be better. Most of our tours started losing steam around the last couple minutes.
- Walk your route beforehand, and walk like a high schooler (slower than molasses). This will help with timing the trip. Aside from a few hiccups, we did not run in to any time constraints.
- Make the trip take less than 4 hours; we took as much time as was available to us, but it might have been too much. While the schedule worked perfectly, most of the algebra students were beginning to lose it by the end.
- High schoolers really like Jimmy John's
- High schoolers also really like explosions or at least hearing about them.
- The trip may have been better with some more hands-on activities. While the students got to handle several samples from some of the labs, I think they'd really get enjoy building stuff. And souvenirs, give them souvenirs.
- Hammer the date and time of the trip into the minds of the attendees, tattoo it on their foreheads if necessary.
- Try to avoid bringing students that are just trying to cut class, they really take away from the rest of the trip and make it miserable for everyone around them.
- Bring a camera so you can remember what happened.
- Triple check the date with Mary Beth.
- Contact any labs that you'd like to tour with at least a week in advance, if not two.
- You can try talking while walking, but it didn't work very well for me.
- According to Molly, many of the students (and herself) didn't realize how physical engineering is; this would be a good thing to emphasize.
Acknowledgements
These are the people that made the trip possible. While my blog may not have the same prestige as a plaque, I think it's important to note that there were a lot of people who worked with Mike and I to put this on.
- Mary Beth, Carol and her husband for chaperoning students to labs that they themselves had never seen before.
- Tonya (and all the RMS students), Michael, Chris, and Matt for the wonderful tours and taking my constant harassment.
- Mike for putting together half of this field trip.
- The Outreach office for covering the costs of the trip, food, and other important financial concerns.
