The world saw some pretty amazing things happen in the field of engineering during the 1900s.
When he spoke to St. Stephen Middle students during their Lunch and Learn session on Thursday, Rolland Fitch named what he considered to be the three greatest engineering feats of the 20th Century: the Apollo 11 launch to the moon, the debut of the Boeing 747 and the debut of the Concorde SST, all of which occurred in 1969.
Getting to the moon required math that had never been used before, Fitch said, and building the Boeing 747 and Concorde SST required engineers to come up with concepts that had never been used in aviation.
It seems like a tough job, but a handful of St. Stephen Middle sixth graders still raised their hands when Fitch, a C41 Systems Test Manager for Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic, asked them if any of the students are interested in becoming engineers one day.
For all those engineering feats, Fitch said engineers had to solve a lot of problems: “How do we mix the fuel together to get the right amount of power out of the engines? How do we keep three astronauts alive for a week to go to the moon and come back? How do we get 325,000 pounds of airplane off the ground?”
In short: "Engineers solve problems," Fitch said.
Students were given their own tangram puzzles while they listened to Fitch; tangrams consist of seven geometric shapes – two small tringles, one medium triangle, two large triangles, a square and a parallelogram – that players can use to create depictions such as animals. The puzzles promote problem-solving skills – something engineers often use while on the job (and, bonus, the students got to keep the puzzles).
While they worked, Fitch talked to students about a more recent engineering event that happened a couple of nights ago: the Artemis 1 launch. NASA’s first female launch director, South Carolina native Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, oversaw the countdown and liftoff of the Artemis I – and Fitch wanted to make sure the girls in the room knew this.
“Girls can be engineers,” he said. “There’s nothing keeping you... Everyone in this room can be an engineer.”
Fitch collaborated with Ahja Glaze, career specialist for the Timberland/Cross feeder schools in Berkeley County School District, to come out to St. Stephen Middle to work with the students.
Glaze said these school visits from experts in the field are super important for students to get them interested in potential career paths, especially jobs in the STEM/STEAM field.
“They can start working now to accomplish those goals if they want to get into STEM/STEAM,” she said.
Plus, students always enjoy the opportunity to work with their special guests.
“They always love it when people come in,” Glaze said.