Discovering engineering

When Eldina Ibrahimovic, a former resident of Bosnia, came to West High School to attend summer school, she found much more than she bargained for.

Intending to make up a class, Ibrahimovic accidentally arrived at the school an hour before it was scheduled to start. She found a roomful of students and asked the teacher, Theresa Mbaku, if she could stay and listen for awhile.

As she sat listening to University of Utah undergraduate Elizabeth Richardson teach the class about engineering, she found herself becoming interested in the subject. She discovered the class was part of a two-week West High School of Design and Discovery program. Since the next session started only a few days later, she immediately signed up.

Ibrahimovic became a part of a group of about 20 students between the ages of 13-18 participating in the second session of the program, created just over a year ago. It is designed to help increase the interest of minority and underrepresented students in engineering, technology, math and science.

"It's all about being exposed and having options," Mbaku said.

The program's curriculum centers around teaching students about the different areas of engineering — mechanical, electrical and chemical. Each day, four students from the U. teach students about a different focus of engineering, applying it to practical, everyday objects. After the lesson, which lasts about an hour, students are assigned a problem and must build a prototype to solve it.

One day's activity involved teaching students about products and the user profile for them or why products are made the way they are. The U. students each presented an object from everyday life — a chess timer, laptop computer and cell phone — and discussed the design and who the devices were geared toward.

Following the discussion, students were asked to design their own version of a Mars rover, using only toothpicks, straws, 17 cotton balls, some glue and an egg. The goal was to design a prototype that would protect the egg from being broken when launched by a catapult-type device called a trebuchet.

Another day's discussion talked about design and user requirements of products. On that day students had to design a backpack using only a cardboard box, fabric and tape. They had to consider whether it was better to use one strap or two, how many pockets they wanted and how to make the straps more durable. Many of the students agreed that their favorite day was studying electricity and circuits, something they had thought too difficult for them.