NHS event promotes engineering with gumdrops, toothpicks, and inspirational speakers

--- Published on March 20th 2015 ---
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Start with a box of “Dots” gumdrops and a handful of toothpicks.

Design and build a structure by plopping toothpicks into the chewable, cone-shaped candies, one by one, piece by piece, until the creation is ready for the ultimate test: Place a hard-cover book atop it. Does it stand or fall?

Girls attending the Natomas High School Women in Engineering Recruitment Fair tackled that challenge today, March 20, in learning that engineering can be fun -- combining elements of design, build, analysis and problem solving.

“You can be an engineer, you can be an architect, you can be all sorts of things,” said Laura B. Macaulay, owner of a Sacramento architectural firm and one of four women who spoke about their professions.

About 50 NHS freshmen girls attended the recruitment fair, as did about 50 7th grade girls from Natomas Gateways Middle School. The goal was to excite them about engineering and recruit them into the NHS Engineering Academy, which currently has far more boys than girls.

Besides Macaulay, featured speakers were Vicky Schoennagel, an Aerojet Rocketdyne engineering working on a project to send a rocket to Mars someday; and water resources engineers Laura Byrd and Rosemarie Dimacali of CH2M Hill.

“It’s tough, but you (girls) all can do it, there’s just as much girl talent out there as men talent,” Byrd said.

The professionals stressed that engineering encompasses a wide variety of job possibilities, from structural to civil to mechanical engineer. Schoennagel is a rocket mission assurance engineer. Byrd and Dimacali are water resource engineers.

A handful of NHS 12th grade girls who are active in the school’s engineering academy urged the younger kids to sign up when they get the chance, stressing that they’ve learned a lot and made new friends along the way.

“We’re like a family,” said Kristina Mendoza.

The NHS engineering academy focuses on elements of design in 10th grade and robotics in the 11th grade, including a project in which they build a robotic device that funnels, lifts and sorts different-colored marbles.

By their senior year, academy students work in groups to suggest and tackle an engineering project: This year, for example, proposals include creating a solar-powered boat, a locked case for charging cellphones while students are attending class, a desk equipped with a whiteboard, a classroom table that rises to better accommodate students in wheelchairs, and a more portable longboard (skateboard).

Teacher Erik Nemer said that even if girls don’t become professional engineers, participating in the NHS academy will give them math, science, analytical, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills that will be invaluable in college and throughout their lives.

Seventh- and 9th grade girls interviewed at the recruitment fair said they were impressed by what they’d seen.

‘I learned that there is a lot more to engineering than just building,” said Damary, 15.

Natalie, 13, said she wants to be a doctor when she grows up but that engineering “seems really interesting.”

Denice, 15, said she suspects that many girls don’t join Natomas High’s academy because they don’t know what engineering entails. “Maybe hearing about it will help them change their mind,” she said.