Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — Engineering tech Brian Pisan likes to make things.
"I've always been into building things. When I was younger I loved playing with Legos," said the Oregon Tech graduate who works at Adkins Consulting Engineering. "Seeing something come from an idea, to plans and specs, to someone out there hammering a nail, or pumping the concrete or erecting steel and iron. I like that kind of stuff. That's what makes it for me."
Pisan told this to a senior engineering class at EagleRidge High School a few weeks ago when they visited Adkins on a field trip.
Learning while building something is key to the charter school's underlying philosophy. It's called project-based learning.
"Everything they learn is based on a project. Everything has a tangible result, whether it's a presentation or a concrete object," said EagleRidge science teacher Mark Ferrara. "We do a lot of hands-on activities in our school."
Project-based learning
"Project-based learning is our model here at EagleRidge," said school director Donald Petersen.
The classic school model for learning starts with teaching and interacting with students. Then students do some work, like a worksheet or paper. Lastly the students take a test to show what they've learned.
"We have the same standards, but we put our standards into a project," Petersen said. "The kids create something. They demonstrate to the teacher that they understand the standards."
And when it comes to state testing and evaluations, the 210 students at EagleRidge still have to take the same tests as the other schools and meet the same benchmarks.
"We teach standards. The kids have to know the standards. They have to pass the tests, just like any other school," Petersen said.
Hands-on
Ferrara decided to teach his students about engineering by getting hands-on with concrete.
First they visited Knife River to see how concrete was made. Then they went to Adkins to test the concrete.
There, Pisan put concrete cylinders into a pressurized machine, testing how much weight it could take. "This little four-inch cylinder will break at several thousand pounds per square inch," he said. "That's multiple, multiple pickups if you could balance them on top of this tiny little cylinder before it would break. Or you could think several elephants."
Next the students used concrete for their own projects.
In Ferrara's classroom this week, Micah Metzger, 16, Michelle Cox. 16, and Christopher Lopez, 17, made a miniature concrete suspension bridge.
"Just because it's challenging," Micah said. "It's not boring. It's more hands-on."
She explained how the concrete molds were designed with spots for a suspension chain to pass through and latch on. Two sides were A-frame supports and one slab made the roadway.
"It's the measurements we need to keep it stable," she said.
Her partners agreed, project-based learning works for them.
"It's easier to concentrate when you focus on a project, one step at a time," Michelle said. "You get to learn more, not just jumping onto another project the next week."
"It really helps a lot because we actually get to experience what works and how everything goes together, instead of just sitting there," Christopher said, comparing making something to studying something. "We'll see through our experience how it all goes together - all the concrete and aggregates and water, how it all comes together. It will cure and become pure concrete. If we were just sitting there learning, we wouldn't be able to experience that."
Jose Corona, 17, took the engineering class as an opportunity to study carbon sequestration, which he researched as part of his project.
"With every ton of concrete made, half a ton of carbon is taken out of the air, reduced," he said.
He studied how power plants can pump emissions into concrete to store it in the earth and capture it.
"I think it's cool," he said.
Way to a career
Back at Adkins engineering, Pisan outlined the way to become an engineer. It's not an easy road.
"The first step, obviously, is graduating high school," he said.
Next is college.
"There is lots of math and sciences involved. Tons of chemistry, tons of physics," along with trigonometry, algebra, calculus, statistics, differential equations, physics and then engineering.
After earning a four-year degree, as he did at Oregon Tech, engineers take an eight-hour test to cover everything they've learned.
And then they're still not an engineer. After that is four years of training and then another exam.
But Pisan said it's all worthwhile when he sees things being built.
"Engineering is a profession," he told the EagleRidge students. "It's a profession equal to being a doctor or a lawyer."
___
Information from: Herald and News, http://www.heraldandnews.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
