"Sign Those Kids Up"

“I think that it is really fun. Learning how our everyday technology works and gives a whole new world perspective on what it takes to make one iPod work.” Allison Geyer said as she placed her opinion on what she thought of the engineering lesson in Mr. Bartel’s physics class. Four Ohio State University (OSU) students came to teach a lesson in engineering. The student had many different things to do from working with LED sensors to even a touch sensor for iPods.

The reason that OSU came to West High was to get students more interested in the possibility of going into an engineering career. Also the United States is facing a shortage of engineers and need more young people going into it as a career.

When OSU came, students did two different experiments on the week of December 1st. The first one they did which were the LED sensors and the second being the touch sensors. With the LED lesson, students first learned about the charges and currents so they would know how not to blow up anything or even power out the battery. Students used a breadboard, a device for assembling and hooking up electronic circuits quickly and easily. They also used components such as resistors, capacitors and LED lights. The students use different wires to connect into the breadboard to connect the battery to the three different LED lights. Many of the students used their initials to display on the LED lights.

With the touch sensor project, they used an integrated circuit (IC) chip that basically worked to monitor the capacitance at the touch pad the students connected to the breadboard. Students had to run different wires into the breadboard and then, they had a pad once the wires were connected correctly would light up a LED just like it would work in an iPod touch.

“I feel like I benefited because now, it has inspired me to consider engineering as a career,” Samantha Little said about the OSU lesson. A lot of students feel like they have an appreciation for the lesson that the OSU students taught. “I got to see what it takes to make things like iPod touches, so I won’t take them for granted.” Brandon Green said. The OSU students helped show students how to view the world differently. How “enjoyable” it actually is to make the things that engineers work on everyday.

Professer Betty Lise Anderson, teaching the students on the different type of circuits that would be used with the breadboards.

"I think that the lessons were a really cool way to get the class involved" Said Samantha Little about the OSU lessons. (Pictured on the left)

OSU student teachers, Lee Cooper (left) and Andy Theiss (right) helping students work on LEDs.