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| Area Teens Earn College Credit as Participants in Cal State Fullerton-Johns Hopkins "What Is Engineering?" Program |
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| Students explore careers, build things, design digital circuits and take field trips to engineering firms during July.
June 27, 2006 :: No. 289 What do Neil Armstrong, Herbert Hoover, Alfred Hitchcock and Scott Adams all have in common? Seventeen high school students will find out when they take part in a special program offered July 5-28 by Cal State Fullerton in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University. Among the things they will be learning during the four-week “What Is Engineering?” program is that Armstrong, Hoover, Hitchcock and Adams — the creator of comic strip Dilbert — had backgrounds in engineering. The program offers students an opportunity to explore various aspects of engineering through lectures on such subjects as robotics and chemical processes, as well as projects that range from designing a mousetrap and digital circuits, to building a bridge out of spaghetti. “The Johns Hopkins program is a great opportunity for students because it provides insight and hands-on experience in many disciplines of engineering, and it rewards them for their efforts by giving them college credits,” said Vonna Hammerschmitt, director of Cal State Fullerton’s Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program for 6th- through 12th-grade students. Teaching the courses will be Prasada Rao, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, who traveled to Johns Hopkins earlier this month for program training. “My hope is that this session will motivate students to pursue a university education as an engineering major,” said Rao. Selected for the inaugural program are juniors and seniors from MESA programs in seven Orange County high schools. The students and their high schools are:
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