The course is part of the College Credit Plus program and students can earn two college credits. It was first implemented at Catholic Central for its winter term that ended last week and the school plans to continue it in 2018.
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The program was taught by Roth and fellow instructor Tim Laughlin.
“We want to inform students on the different types of engineering and provide them with experience,” Roth said.
Eight students were enrolled in the 22-day course and worked on projects such as building a trebuchet, a functioning chair made entirely out of cardboard, a miniature solar car at the Westcott House, and building a structure that will contain 16 hanging microphones for the theatre department.
“It is a lot more hands on than most high school classes normally are,” senior Gregory Welch said. “You start with a project and then you can continuously improve on it over and over until it’s finally as good as you want it to be.”
The course is opened to all high school students who have completed Algebra 2 and taken UC’s math placement test.
The curriculum for the course is designed by UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science and is directed by Eugene Rutz.
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“Our role is to provide content that is consistent with how we teach our first year engineering course,” Rutz said. “Students meet the same learning outcomes that college students meet, but they do not take the same path.”
The course is taught in at least 24 schools in Ohio and two in Kentucky and high school instructors are provided with a summer training program.
“I feel like when I get out of high school, engineering might be a field that I want to go into,” Catholic Central sophomore Adelaide Taylor said. “I want to go out and create stuff that will help the world and the environment.”
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