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Srs, Fort Discovery Show Careers to Middle-Schoolers

Posted on: Thursday, 16 February 2006, 03:00 CST

By Josh Gelinas< South Carolina Bureau Chief

Tyronica Gracy, a 12-year-old student at Glenn Hills Middle School, might not know it, but Presi-dent Bush is looking for students just like her.

She says she enjoys math, especially the way it can be applied outside the classroom.

"You can learn math anywhere you go," she said Tuesday at Technology Days 2006, a two-day event that culminates today at the National Science Center's Fort Discovery in Augusta.

Savannah River Site is sponsoring the event in recognition of National Engineers Week. It's an effort geared to attract middle school children to math and sciences, and maybe even a career in a related field.

"What we're wanting is interaction," said Salman Khan, a structural engineer at SRS who helped organize the event.

"Our goal is to get them excited about science, basically."

Some studies show that other nations are more interested in science or engineering.

Half of China's undergraduates, for example, are getting degrees in either natural sciences or engineering, according to a National Academies of Sciences report released last year, while just 15 percent of undergraduates in the U.S. are doing likewise.

Recognizing a growing need, President Bush announced the American Competitiveness Initiative in January that aims to funnel more money to math and science programs.

"This initiative recognizes two fundamental truths: That in order to maintain our economic preeminence, we must maintain our scientific and technological superiority; and that doing so requires a substantial and sustained investment," U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday during a speech to the American Society for Engineering Education in Washington.

Locally, SRS has done its part by holding technology fairs for youngsters for more than a decade. On Tuesday, engineers and scientists from the nuclear reservation near Aiken put up 40 exhibits.

Almost 3,000 students from 27 schools were expected to attend, getting the opportunity to see things they'd only read about.

They were able to stick their arms into the same sort of protective boxes that SRS scientists use to work with radioactive materials. They watched electrons move through a circuit and create electricity. And they watched a computer program that showed how bridges are designed to disperse the weight of a vehicle as it crosses.

Kids were challenged to answer questions with information from the exhibits and turn them in for prizes.

Keeping kids curious is a challenge teachers face every day. Elizabeth Simpson uses Legos to get the job done.

Students in Ms. Simpson's program at Schofield Middle School in Aiken use computer programming and mechanical engineering to build working robots.

"Each child discovers they have a talent," said Ms. Simpson.

There's a need for her graduates, including at SRS.

Andy Maham, 26, started working there 2 1/2 years ago after getting his master's degree from Georgia Technical Institute in Atlanta. A lot of his graduate school classmates were from other countries, namely China, India and Turkey, he recalled.

Reach Josh Gelinas at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or josh.gelinas@augustachronicle.com.

Source: Augusta Chronicle, The

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