LOCAL SCHOOLS PARTICIPATE IN NATIONAL ENGINEER’S WEEK

IBM Employees Demonstrate Engineering Experiments at LMES & PHS

May 21, 2004, Middlebury/Southbury—IBM has teamed up with Region 15’s Pomperaug High School and Long Meadow Elementary School for the second year in a row to introduce the world of engineering to students. Employees from the IBM/Southbury, CT facility talked to the over thirty students about the field of engineering, showed a video of engineers at the TREK bicycle company, and coordinated a physics experiment.

IBM employees, Jenny Li, Doug Ziemke, and Annemarie Martinez, visited physics classes, including honors and advanced placement classes, at Pomperaug High School last month to challenge students to use their physics background to build the tallest structure in eight minutes. The students could use only dry spaghetti and marshmallows.

“The winning structure was 33 inches tall,” said Jose Martinez, Pomperaug High School science and math department chair. “The students had fun, but more importantly, they learned that there are many different types of engineers, yet they all work to improve our lives via technology and make us all more productive. Many of the students were not aware of engineering’s scope.”

Additionally, two IBM employees visited Long Meadow Elementary School this month to share an engineering experiment using toothpicks and gumdrops with students in Carrie Stepeck’s first grade class and Jennifer Albright’s third grade class.

IBM’s role in supporting National Engineer’s Week is to arouse K-12 student interest in mathematics, science and technology. National Engineers Week is an annual program, sponsored by many professional engineering association and corporations, including IBM, aimed at increasing public awareness of engineers' contributions to our society by celebrating innovation and technology.

“Professionals who share their experiences and knowledge with our young people bring a face to a student’s possible career choice,” said Leslie Belval, Pomperaug High School career center coordinator. “Some of our high school juniors and seniors in these classes hope to pursue engineering in college and we are so pleased to have IBM as a good educational neighbor.”