Six ninth-graders from the Urban Assembly School (HS 241) recently competed in the third annual Real World Design Challenge (RWDC), a national aerospace engineering contest that gives high school students the tools, mentors, training, and opportunity to tackle some of the hardest problems facing aerospace engineers eager to build fuel efficient airplanes. The students participated in the contest through GEAR UP, The Bronx Institute at Lehman College’s six-year college readiness program.

This year, RWDC asked participants to design an airplane wing. As the students discovered, devoting many hours after-school to the task brought benefits, among them exploring an engineering career hands-on, working on a team, applying their math skills outside the classroom, and having fun. Current commercial aircraft wings are heavy, stiff, and use fuel inefficiently. The teams competed to design a light and flexible wing. “The biggest challenge was calculating how much fuel would fit in our wing,” said Sammy Fernandez, a team member and an aspiring engineer. “Each step of the calculation used numbers with many decimal places, so a small error would always be reflected in our final answer.”

“Exploring a STEM career can develop skills and awaken interests that transform a student’s life,” said Prof. Hermino Martinez, the Executive Director of The Bronx Institute and faculty member in the Department of Middle and High School Education. “The RWDC is one of many such experiences available to local students through GEAR UP and The Bronx Institute’s other academic enrichment programs.”

Posted on: April 18, 2011
Article published on: April 18, 2011 | by: The Bronx Institute