Joining us today Are Armando Henriquez and Dean Alkire, who are going to talk about the role of university student clubs working with K-12 students and how we can get those young students to actively engage in their own learning in an after school setting. Armando is a fourth-year undergrad in mechanical engineering at the Ohio State University and Dean is an eighth grader at the Metro Early College Middle School participating in an afterschool program called the Innovators Club.
Armando is a third year student participating in a program or a team called the Formula Buckeyes. The Formula Buckeyes is a collegiate level Formula 1-style race team. They get around nine months to build, design, test, and validate a race car, then they have to figure out who can build the best performing and most reliable car within a limited budget. Dean has also worked on a number of projects that Formula Buckeyes have brought to the Innovators Club.
Together, they talk about the experiences of bringing engineering into schools early in a fun, exciting way, and the wide-reaching education that comes from working on these projects.
We unbox:
Helping students find out what they want to do later on
When you teach something, you know it better
What kids are able to pick up on quickly
Thinking through the design process
Using engineering as a way to be creative
Bringing in advanced learning while also being able to cover the basics
Resources:
Metro Early College Middle School: https://www.themetroschool.org/o/metro-schools/page/metro-early-college-middle-school
The Innovators Club: https://www.pastfoundation.org/event_page/innovators-club