{"id":143268,"date":"2024-04-04T12:57:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T12:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=143268"},"modified":"2024-04-04T15:20:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T15:20:27","slug":"frce-inspires-next-generation-of-engineers-during-e-week-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=143268","title":{"rendered":"FRCE Inspires Next Generation of Engineers During E-Week Activities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) recently engaged thousands of Eastern North Carolina students with interactive, STEM-based learning activities as part of National Engineers Week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The depot\u2019s STEM Outreach Team conducted a total of 54 events at 39 local schools, engaging over 4,700 students in celebration of National Engineers Week. Also known as E-Week, the national observance is one of the largest science, technology, engineering and math events in the United States.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outreach efforts play a pivotal role at FRCE, enabling the depot to expand its reach and connect with the local community, according to FRCE Executive Director Mark Meno.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEngineers Week is a great opportunity for the depot to reinforce its commitment to the community and inspire the next generation of engineers and aviation professionals,\u201d said Meno. \u201cBy inspiring students to explore STEM-based career paths, we not only help shape their future but also foster a more innovative future workforce for Eastern North Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n

While National Engineers Week officially falls on Feb. 18-24, FRCE\u2019s STEM Outreach Team extended its efforts over a four-week period, beginning Feb. 15 and ending March 13. This year\u2019s E-Week outreach efforts was the largest in FRCE history, according to FRCE K-12 STEM Education Outreach Coordinator Michelle Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEngineers Week continues to be one of FRC East\u2019s largest STEM outreach efforts,\u201d said Smith. \u201cWith the depot\u2019s ongoing growth, our outreach efforts have become increasingly critical in shaping the depot\u2019s future workforce by allowing us to engage, inspire and educate students about the STEM-based careers at FRC East.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, the popularity of E-Week has grown,\u201d Smith continued, \u201cgiving us the opportunity to extend the event beyond just a single week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 100 FRCE engineers volunteered to visit local schools to discuss the importance of STEM education and the role it could play in their future careers. FRCE aerospace engineer Timothy Gillikin said the outreach events positively impacted many students.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use E-Week as a time to talk about STEM and engineering,\u201d said Gillikin. \u201cBut we also really like to share what we do with the students because many of them know about Cherry Point and the base, but most don\u2019t know about what FRC East does. We go into schools and really open their eyes to the\u00a0sheer number of jobs and opportunities there are at the depot.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kari Stallings, Academically or Intellectually Gifted Program teacher for A.H. Bangert Elementary School in Trent Woods, said the depot\u2019s E-Week outreach efforts were beneficial for her students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a positive, hands-on learning experience for my group of fourth and fifth graders,\u201d said Stallings. \u201cThey had a great lesson prepared where the students were able to test their engineering skills and learn through trial and error as many engineers do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really opened their eyes to the different career paths in engineering that they may not have ever considered before,\u201d Stallings continued. \u201cMy students are very inquisitive, so they enjoyed learning about all the different engineering opportunities available to them in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

FRCE electrical engineer Zach Shuler emphasized the importance of introducing students to STEM-based learning at a young age.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen investing in people and potential future employees, finding those who are already local to the area as they are more likely to stay and build a career here is very beneficial,\u201d said Shuler. \u201cIt\u2019s important to raise awareness early to get people invested in pursuing a career at FRC East.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the E-Week activities included open-ended design challenges rooted in engineering to encourage students to think outside of the box, according to Shuler.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese challenges are always fun because there\u2019s no one solution. The purpose of this is to help them work on their creativity by encouraging them to think outside of the box to find a solution,\u201d said Shuler. \u201cWith every activity, I would see a group of students make something and I\u2019d think to myself, \u2018Wow, I would have never thought to do that.\u2019 It\u2019s very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

One E-Week activity presented the students with a challenging scenario, according to Gillikin. Known as \u201cflying paper devices,\u201d the activity challenged students to design a flying device made entirely out of paper with two objectives: cover the maximum distance possible and remain airborne for the longest time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this challenge, we have to make sure to emphasize that this is not a paper airplane challenge; this is a flying paper device challenge,\u201d said Gillikin. \u201cYou might be pigeonholed into one way of thinking about a problem, but you\u2019ve got to make sure you understand the objective. This is huge in engineering. You can\u2019t begin to solve a problem until you know what you\u2019re being asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shuler agreed with Gillikin that this challenge can be difficult for some students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people hear us say, \u2018flying paper device,\u2019 they immediately think of paper airplanes,\u201d said Shuler. \u201cBut actually, if you take a piece of paper, crumple it up into a ball and throw it, that\u2019s a flying paper device that we know will go pretty far.\u201d<\/p>\n

To reach as many young minds as possible during E-Week, the FRCE STEM Outreach Team offered both in-person and virtual events, said Shuler.<\/p>\n

\u201cVirtual events can occasionally be less interactive but when I paused for questions, the students asked so many great, engaging questions,\u201d said Shuler. \u201cThey were super interested in what was going on and they really loved the activity we did with them. The teachers even said the students really got something out of it. It was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

FRCE is North Carolina’s largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion. The depot provides service to the fleet while functioning as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) recently engaged thousands of Eastern North Carolina students with interactive, STEM-based learning activities as part of National Engineers Week.\u00a0 The depot\u2019s STEM Outreach Team conducted a total of 54 events at 39 local schools, engaging over 4,700 students in celebration of National Engineers Week. Also known as E-Week, the national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":143270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143271,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143268\/revisions\/143271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/143270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}