One of San Diego Unified School District's valued partners, Northrop Grumman hosted a series of events during National Engineering Week for our middle school students in February! E-Week promotes the importance of career and technical education as well as encouraging students to pursue higher levels of math and science.Students enrolled in the Gateway to Technology course at Bethune K-8 participated in a Snap Circuits Activity on the Northrop Grumman campus. Electrical and Mechanical engineers were on hand to walk the students through an overview of electrical circuits. After learning the basic theories of how circuits work, the students worked in groups to solve problems and then create a variety of projects using the Snap Circuits parts. Students learned how to make motors and fans work, turn on buzzers, and light up LEDs!
Marston Middle School students were able to work directly with the engineers to build Arduino Planet-Finding CubeSats and participate in two James Webb Telescope inspired experiments using luminosity and infrared sensors.
Northrop Grumman hosted Bell Middle School and Lewis Middle school for an Introduce a Girl to Engineering experience as well. The students were inspired by the many female engineers at Northrop Grumman and walked away knowing they could join them one day!
Students from Marshall Middle School participated in a modified egg drop challenge, modeling Northrop Grumman engineers that design devices to land a payload safely on a small target. The students designed a container to safely hold a "Smart Egg." Northrop Grumman collaborated with Fab Lab to create 3D-printed eggs containing an accelerometer and wifi-capability. The eggs measured force and acceleration, providing real-time data used to gauge the success of each group's device. Devices were connected to a quadcopter which attempted to lift the devices up and release them on a specific target.
E-Week concluded with a visit from Northrop Grumman to Challenger Middle school where over 250 sixth grade students learned about Operation #Polar Eye, a partnership between Northrop Grumman and San Diego Zoo Global. Three engineers and a graphic designer showed footage from the arctic, and how drones were used to monitor polar bears in relation to their habitat and the climate. Questions from students about the extremely cold climate led to a discussion on how an engineer's job is to design solutions to problems. Students were encouraged to look into careers in the field of engineering and also careers who work in partnership with engineers such as graphic design.
Many students remarked that these were the most memorable experiences of their school careers! Thank you Northrop Grumman!
