Students Problem-Solve During ISU’s Tech Day
By Michele Steinbacher, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.
Nov. 17–NORMAL — With time running out, Pontiac Township High School senior Benjamin Monroe leaned over a mousetrap-balloon-tennis ball contraption, hurrying to perfect the project he’d been developing with teammates for the past hour. — Video
“Put more tape on it to make it stay,” the Odell senior said as others righted a tack to the table. Within arm’s reach, Nate Weber worked to make another part of the device sturdier.
The goal was to take a predetermined pile of parts and build a machine that would lift a tennis ball while popping a balloon.
Senior John Luckman — who credits his interest in engineering to a youthful fascination with Legos — rearranged a string and worked on adding weight to another side, intended to make the balloon pop.
“Fifteen minutes left,” announced Chris Merrill, an Illinois State University technology professor, directing the students from the stage of ISU’s Brown Ballroom.
The student’s invention challenge was one of several at ISU’s seventh annual Technology Day, drawing about 400 junior high and high school students from across the state Friday to the Normal campus.
Merrill leads the event, cosponsored by the Illinois-Technology Student Association and the Technology Education Collegiate Association in ISU’s technology department.
More than 90 four-person teams competed in hands-on problem-solving activities focused on engineering, invention and innovation, medical technology, structural technology and transportation technology.
The activities and challenges are based on the National Standards for Technological Literacy.
Some people hear the word “technology,” and thoughts turn quickly to computers. But that’s not the whole picture when it comes to technology, said Shane Chandler, an ISU senior studying to teach technology at the high school level.
“One definition of technology is anything developed by people,” said Chandler, one of Friday’s judges.
A key to learning about technology is design and planning, he said.
Friday’s event was a great opportunity for kids already enrolled in technology classes to have a fun, challenging competition, said Ryan Woith, an engineering teacher with the Livingston Area Career Center and an ISU graduate.
Each group was given a box of materials. They couldn’t use anything else and had 90 minutes to develop an item as instructed.
A profession in need of talent
With baby boomers beginning to retire, engineering, architecture and other technology fields are recruiting the next generation. Friday’s event is one way to recruit that generation, said Ed Livingston, an ISU technology professor.
Unity Township High School tech teacher Mike Longest brought seven students from his Principles of Engineering course to the event.
“It gets them thinking about what you can do,” he said.
“I’ve heard there’s only about half the people needed to fill the engineering jobs out there now,” he added.
High schools like Unity, in the Quad City area, have done their part to recruit students into the field, adopting an engineering curriculum called Project Lead the Way, he said.
One area national technology leaders continue to work on is recruiting girls to study engineering and related disciplines.
Woith, from the career center, acknowledges there is a long way to go. But he notes in 2004 he didn’t have a single girl signed up for his technology classes. This year, he estimates 35 percent of his students are female.
Four of those girls took part in Friday’s event. PTHS senior Christina Phillips said she loves the technology classes and hopes to become an engineer. At her table she worked with Stephanie Wertz and others to build a tower using only mini-marshmallows, toothpicks, rubber bands and foam board.
Later, the group waited in line to have its structural technology entry judged for stability. Each entry in that category was placed on a shaking device to simulate an earthquake, and judges timed how long each entry withstood the stress.
“I think it will last more than a minute. But if something does go wrong, it will be one of the marshmallows flying out or something,” said Cara Humbert, a Pontiac senior.
Lianna Wesselhoff has taken technology all four years of high school. She aims to become an interior designer.
“I like these classes because they are so hands-on. We actually get to do it, get to see it and not just read about the lessons,” she said.
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