At A.J.Whittenberg, E is for Engineering

By Anna Mitchell  

AUGUST 20, 2010 2:04 p.m. (0)

GE Energy design engineer Eric Bonini said he notes a pause when he talks about an elementary school for engineering.

“It seems strange at first,” Bonini said. “Any non-engineer will step back and say what? Is it little robots memorizing Pi in kindergarten?”

But the pedagogy and curriculum behind A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School of Engineering  is more about critical thinking than sorting out the rules of physics or geometry, he said.

“It’s about breaking things down and figuring them out,” said Bonini, who designs the hot section of gas turbines. “This could work for lawyers, bankers, doctors and engineers. It will help you be a better problem solver.”

Bonini is among a small army of engineers for various business and institutions – from Michelin to Fluor, GE to ICAR – who live and work in Greenville.

Ansel Sanders, program director for A.J. Whittenberg, has paid a visit to firms all over the area rounding up volunteers to run a week of special classes at the school this coming year. He said it’s been an easy sell, with some firms coming to him first.

“We went to the ground breaking for the Kroc Center and were listening to some of the folks who spoke there,” said Cheryl Smith, the community and public affairs director for the Fluor Corp. “The superintendent was talking about A.J. and that it was going to be focused on engineering, and we went, ‘we want to be involved with that.’”

The school of 275 students on Westfield Street in downtown Greenville has a waiting list for its 4K kindergarten class and is about full in the kindergarten through second-grade classes. It will add a grade each year until the current second-graders hit fifth grade.

Though still under construction inside, the school earlier this month drew in 130 students and their soon-to-be engineering mentors to work together on a playground design. The school’s parents, teachers and volunteers will build the playground Sept. 29 to Oct. 3 on a patch of ground between the school and the Salvation Army’s Kroc Center going up next door.

“Some of those kids trouped through the gate with their ideas in hand,” said Tom Roe, the school’s curriculum director.

An inch-thick pile of their intricate drawings – some complete with labels and explanatory captions – lay on a corner of Sanders’ desk last week.

“That’s where it starts,” said Smith of Fluor, which has deep roots in Greenville through its merger 33 years ago with Daniel International. “You have to get the kids’ attention at that age. They have to know math and science are fun and relate to the real world. And it’s something they can do when they grow up.”

Engineers from Fluor Corp. will visit A.J. Whittenberg in December to assist students and teachers with various engineering and math concepts, Smith said. Aside from the volunteers, Fluor donated $10,000 for the purchase of math tools that help children sort out problems by touch.

Meanwhile, Hubbell Lighting’s Mike Campbell has lined up volunteers to explain light engineering, light pollution and how light bulbs work for a week in September. Second-graders will visit Hubbell’s test lab and training center.

Bonini’s crew will explain electricity some time later in the fall.

Michelin’s Jeremy Trowbridge will head up a team of engineers explaining the company’s airless “tweel” – which took mechanical and chemical engineers to develop, among others. Michelin donated six of the school’s 11 “SMART” tables, which are essentially tablet computers on legs with activities loaded for young children.

And in October, student’s pursuing master’s degrees in auto engineering at ICAR will talk to the kids about cars, and the older children will tour the labs where cars and their components are put through their paces.

ICAR graduate student coordinator Lee Davis said U.S. schools are falling behind on the race to produce the scientists and engineers of the future. Any chance to get minorities and females excited about science is welcome, too, she said.

“Here, even, we have two-thirds international students,” Davis said, “so we definitely need to work with our American students as well.”

Sanders said the A.J. Whittenberg building itself will serve as a laboratory, as teachers point out the details of design and function in everything from soap dispensers to the building’s energy-efficient details.

“Our vision is to give the children an unlimited view of engineering,” Roe said.

Smith said her company employs every kind of engineer there is – chemical, mechanical, civil, and so on – in the course of projects, which recently have included a massive petrochemical refinery in the Republic of Tartarstan and a gold mine on a remote island of Indonesia.

Mark Reilly, GE’s communications manager, said the 1,500 engineers his company has on the payroll here in Greenville are recruited from all parts of the U.S., Europe, China, India and beyond.

“Our focus is on finding the best talent available,” he said. “If we can help the U.S. develop that talent, that’s so much the better.”

Comments

Add New

Leave a Comment
Comments are moderated and may not be posted immediately.
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."