Student teams had to construct bridges made only of spaghetti and glue and see how much weight they could hold.
Simultaneous competitions were held at Johns Hopkins summer programs across the country. The winning bridge at the university’s Baltimore campus held 52 pounds.
“I was a little nervous,” said Andy Horton, a member of a team from Greenon High School. The group’s epoxy mixture used to glue their bridge together didn’t dry as quickly as they would have liked.
Horton said the camp has reaffirmed his desire to study nuclear engineering. His teammates were Rachel Stute and Jessi Garrett.
Over the course of the program, high school students completed lab projects in chemical and mechanical engineering. They included robotics and materials testing on Clark State’s campus and visiting labs at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering in Baltimore.
In addition, 24 middle school students participated in a one-week program called Phone & Games. Students had to apply math knowledge to create apps for Android devices. That camp concluded with a reception July 17.
“It was a really difficult and challenging class,” Garrett said of the high school program, adding she learned a lot in the short amount of time. “It’s like an entire college class condensed into a month.”
Students were eligible to receive college credit for the course.
Garrett and Stute said they are both interested in entering the field of bio-medical engineering.
Johns Hopkins held the Engineering Innovation camp at 13 campuses this summer with about 350 students participating nationwide.
This was the first time the Phone & Games program was presented. Clark State served as a test site for the program.
All local students attended free of charge thanks to program benefactor Rosalyn Bullock, who also funds the Bullock Math Academy at Wittenberg University.
Her attorney and a program coordinator, Daniel Harkins, said the camp was a huge success and there is a commitment to continue it for years to come.
“I believe the students were energized” to continue in STEM fields, he said.
“The partnership between Clark State Community College and Johns Hopkins University has developed wonderfully,” said Kanesha Hall, Clark State STEM programming manager and camp instructor. “The students will leave with experience to build their resumes and transcripts, with three college credits Johns Hopkins University if they earned a B or higher in the program.”
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