This week, February 16 – February 22, has been Engineers Week 2020. EWeek, founded by the NSPE in 1951, focuses on the value and importance of engineering careers with special emphasis on introducing the field of engineering to young students. For the last thirty years, the organization DiscoverE has encouraged engineers to give classroom presentations to K-12 students and has provided educational resources to support this endeavor.
As part of DiscoverE’s educational initiative, one of KTM’s engineers gave a presentation this week at Sterling Middle School in Greenville, SC. Our engineer met with a class of 7th-grade students to talk about design, drafting, 3D modeling, and how math applies to engineering.
A hands-on activity for the students involved assembling a wind-up car. Watching a 3D printer produce some of the parts to the car during the presentation gave students an opportunity to see designs take physical shape, taking a project from design to production. Students then divided into teams to assemble the cars on their own.
An important part of this activity involved understanding how to design and assemble gears in the correct ratios so that the cars would be able to move as intended. Students discussed how to determine gear ratios and calculate torque. After this discussion, the teams of students predicted how far their model cars would travel based on gear revolutions.
Further discussion provided the students with information on finite element modeling. Students were able to learn about stress analysis, seeing how software can simulate force on designs to determine whether the frame will break.
This local involvement is one way that we at KTM have been able to celebrate EWeek with our community as well as within our company. If you are an engineer, consider how you can help local students learn about engineering careers.
If you are a high-school or college student interested in completing an engineering internship, visit our Careers page for more information about internship opportunities and how to apply.