Photo By Staff Sgt. Patricia McMurphy | Soldiers with the 555th Engineer Brigade and the students of Mr. Bethman’s Gateway...... read more read more
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FORT LEWIS, Wash. - Soldiers with the 555th Engineer Brigade from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, hosted Kurt Bethman’s Gateway to Technology class on a field trip to two different construction sites to see how the stuff they learn in their Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education program classroom can be applied to everyday tasks.
This new partnership between the Pioneer Middle School class and the Army is not to just build interest in the industries that fall under the STEM umbrella by introducing the subjects needed in a classroom setting, but showing them how what they learn relates to real-world occupations.
“There is a nationwide initiative to encourage students to pursue education and careers in STEM fields because for a while there was a lack of interest,” said Capt. Jeffrey Woerth, training officer and STEM outreach coordinator for 555th Engineer Brigade. “For our brigade, this is really a chance to give back to the community and really engage with local kids and get them interested in this kind of thing.”
According to the National Science Foundation in the 21st century, scientific and technological innovations have become increasingly important to succeed in this new information-based and highly technological society, students need to develop their capabilities in STEM to levels much beyond what was considered acceptable in the past.
The field trip allowed the students to see how different types of engineers work together to complete complicated tasks and how the finished products make life better.
“Today they have gotten to see a little bit of how engineering affects their lives, because they see the waste water treatment plant, something that influences every one of us, and lets us live in a nicer environment than a lot of people have throughout history.”
Water treatment is the industrial-scale process that makes water more acceptable for an end-use, which may be consumption, industry, or medicine. During the field trip, the students got to see how a plant was built and learned how it would process the water when building was complete.
The students engaged the engineer and asked several questions to better understand the final goals of the plant.
“I learned a lot of stuff about building at the plant today”. Josh Blake, an eighth-grade student in the Gateways class.
Blake said what he saw related to what they study in their class and it was nice to see how what they learn develops into a working, functioning facility.
“We learn how to design sketches on computer and on paper in class,” said Blake. “Some designs are hard to sketch, like an elevator.”
He said an example of an easy sketch would be something like a solar panel.
The students were given a ton of information to process and they all seemed eager for more, and more is what they got after traveling to JBLM North, where Soldiers with 610th Engineer Support Company, 555th Engineer Brigade, were constructing a parking lot.
After an initial briefing, the Soldiers stopped what they were doing to give the students an up-close look at some of the machinery they use daily and even gave some the chance to operate the bucket on a front-end loader.
Woerth said that getting the students to come out and see the processes and machinery that build things people use every day really opens their minds to the possibilities of things they can do later in life.
“I think we have some great kids here who I think are going to some great things in life,” said Woerth. “I have been impressed with what these kids already know and it gives me a lot of optimism for the future.”
| Date Taken: | 06.04.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.05.2015 16:11 |
| Story ID: | 165648 |
| Location: | FORT LEWIS, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 201 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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