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NC State students bring engineering to life in Rocky Mount

A group of middle school students was sitting at the Gateway Technology Center on the campus of Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount after school designing and creating their own straw rockets.

They couldn’t wait to test them.

“Their enthusiasm for building straw rockets was infectious. They were like sponges,” said Cyndi Carpenter, the instructor for the program.  “Anything I asked them to do, they couldn’t wait to try.”

The students were participating in the ASCENT program, which is offered through the Engineering Place outreach program at North Carolina State University. Local science and math middle school teachers, as well as practicing engineers and NC State engineering students, are involved with ASCENT, which stands for Achieving Success through Challenges in Engineering aNd Technology.

The school-year program, an off-shoot of a summer program the Engineering Place offered earlier this year, is designed so children in the Rocky Mount area can get hands-on experience with engineering that they wouldn’t receive otherwise. The program is also an opportunity for the area’s math and science middle school teachers to get experience with engineering activities and learn how to make learning math and science more relevant to kids and their parents.

“ASCENT is a fantastic way for NC State Engineering to reach out into the Rocky Mount community over an extended period of time to demonstrate how relevant engineering is to the participating students and teachers,” said Susan D’Amico, program coordinator for the Engineering Place.

The program also provides an opportunity for NC State engineering undergraduates to mentor the students and be role models.

“Since I’m from the area in which some of the camps took place, that really played a role in my effectiveness as a mentor and role model,” said Kristin Webb, a senior civil engineering major at NC State who grew up near Rocky Mount. She shared her personal story with students to help them to see how someone from their hometown can be successful in engineering. She helped out at the summer camp run by Carpenter that offered similar engineering instruction, and this fall she was invited by Carpenter to work with ASCENT.

“The NC State engineering students work extremely well with kids,” Carpenter said.

The students particularly liked ALICE, a computer animation program that helps them to learn computer programming through creating their own short 3D movies. The program uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to create an engaging first programming experience. Students are given their own NC State Engineering USB bracelet that has the program downloaded onto it. The students then can save and retrieve their 3D movies at home or at school.

Engineers from local companies such as Honeywell and Rocky Mount Engine have been invited to attend future sessions so the children can learn from them.

The program began in September and operates on the third Friday of each month through May, covering a different field of engineering in each two-hour session.  All of the sessions involve children working in small groups to find a solution to an engineering challenge.

“These students do not have many opportunities to do hands-on engineering activities in the classroom,” Carpenter said. “This program helps us expose them to important engineering principles.”