Engineering for High School

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Do you have a child who is detailed oriented and likes to figure out the why of how things work?   Who likes to figure out how to make things, or figures out the most efficient way of doing things?   Well.. I DO.    It sometimes drives me crazy, but I’ve learned (mostly to live with it).    I’ve had more than one person tell me that he’s got a bit of an engineers mind.  Therefore, this week I’m hoping to help others who are looking into opportunities for engineering for high school.

Places to Go On-Line

The Engineer Guy is a website I am still exploring.  There is much to see and read.  How useful he will be to me and my lad I don’t know.  Check him out.

I find this site Instructables absolutely fascinating.  The things people make.  Sometimes I feel so inspired to try some of them out.  You need to be aware that not everyone is as complete in their instructions as others.  Some have specialized equipment, so pick and choose what you look at.  But wow… browsing is such fun!  They even have lessons just for high school. 

TeachEngineering has some 360 lessons.  Print them off and use them.  Practice out your engineering skills.  Complete a whole unit or dash around trying your hand at different things.   

I’m looking into a program called Engineer Your world. I don’t know a whole lot about it but it certainly looks interesting.   I’ve learned it’s not cheap, it’s three year commitment with materials to store and you need a minimum of 9 children to participate yearly.

If you want more online options, you could go to many of online options I listed here and search out their engineering courses. For instance Alison has all these engineering related courses. 

Real Life Opportunities

As I was doing some researching I discovered that different universities (in the States and Canada) and I’m assuming there are opportunities world-wide for summer learning.   For instance the University of Western Ontario has this high school program. 

The University of Waterloo has these enrichment programs. 

You could job shadow an engineer… there are so many fields for engineers it’s amazing.  SO if you didn’t like aspects of one engineers job you could easily switch to another. Pursue to the type of engineering you would like to do. 

Positions for Engineers

Civil engineer.  These are the most common. Something is being built like a road, a house, a building etc.   You need people to design it, and then you need people to safely construct it.  These people (the designers and the constructors) are civil engineers.   To learn more see here.

Mechanical Engineer.  An engineer who deals with mechanical things.  They work on the design of machines, calibration and more.

Chemical Engineer.  Well you know it has to do with chemicals right?  They use their knowledge of chemistry and chemical to develop and design chemical manufacturing processes. They use this knowledge to develop new drugs, in food production and much more. 

Petroleum Engineer.  These folks finds ways to better utilize petroleum products and to extract it from the ground. 

Electrical Engineer.  “Someone who designs and develops new electrical systems, solves problems and tests equipment.” They apply (after study) physics and math to various systems to transmit energy and to help process information. If it’s electrical, they are involved. Continue reading here.

Aeronautic Engineer.  Think of anything that interacts with the air and space.  Those items/jobs/positions are what these folks fill.   

My son has taken two engineering courses over his middle school years.  Last year Robotics and Thinking like an Engineer.   

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a few engineering tasks on their site.  Not a whole lot, but perhaps enough the whet the appetite of your students.   Before you know you’ll be teaching engineering for high school!  🙂

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