October 2014

NSPE TODAY
Nevada Society Shows Students the ‘E’ in STEM

A summer partnership between the Nevada Society of Professional Engineers and the Upward Bound program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, gave 86 high school students an up-close look at how the work of PEs contributes to sustainability in their community.

David James, P.E., F.NSPE, an associate professor at UNLV and 2010–12 Nevada Society president, led the collaboration. He explains the society reached out to Upward Bound, an academic enrichment program, to offer the E in its summer STEM focus. The PEs asked for one day a week in a six-week program to talk about “Engineering a Sustainable World,” coinciding with the program’s overall sustainability theme.

The organization wants to do more hands-on outreach to not only help create more engineers, but also engage its own members, James explains.

According to Kelly Yurchick, academic counselor for the school’s Upward Bound program, the group wanted to work with the Nevada Society because of the engineers’ “amazing energy and expertise.” Students were able to meet engineers with various backgrounds, skills, and real-life experiences who were dedicated to teaching them, Yurchick says.

The high schoolers visited sustainable buildings, a wetlands park and its erosion control weirs, a regional flood control district construction project, and the water reclamation district main treatment plant. In addition, they built 22-foot truss bridges in a teambuilding exercise.

At the end of the session, students made presentations that were judged by James and fellow Nevada Society member Jill Reilly, P.E., who also hosted an all-day tour at the Clark County Regional Flood Control District. Other Nevada Society members who volunteered their time were Brook Demitropoulos, P.E., and Claire Kohatsu, P.E., who taught the students about materials during a tour of Aztech Inspections & Testing.

Yurchick notes that feedback from the students was “fantastic,” and included how “cool” they thought the engineers and activities were. Students also gave the engineers high marks for answering questions in easily understandable ways.

James says solving the engineering pipeline problem requires educating students about what engineers do. He believes, despite all the talk about the importance of STEM, there’s still not enough action. “I’m tired of diatribes, finger pointing,” he says. “I’m going to do something about it.”

The PE took inspiration from NSPE’s outreach efforts and believes state societies could learn from that model. “We need high-impact experiences that reinforce and improve learning,” he says, adding that they should include ongoing interaction with engineers, not just one-off activities.

These efforts can also help attract and retain younger professional engineers, he says. “The younger generation, when they do stuff outside of work, they want to have fun.”

The Nevada Society plans to continue its work with Upward Bound next year and for the foreseeable future. As Yurchick puts it, the experience was “amazingly wonderful.”

UPWARD BOUND STUDENTS LEARNED ABOUT SEVERAL DIFFERENT TEST METHODS FOR SOIL, ASPHALT, AND CONCRETE AT A VISIT TO AZTECH INSPECTIONS & TESTING THIS SUMMER.
PHOTO BY AZTECH INSPECTIONS & TESTING LLC