Two Grand County High School students attended Utah State University’s 23rd annual Engineering State program earlier this month.
Jacob Francis and Adam Jenkinson from Grand County High School were among the 209 students excelling in math and science who were invited to attend the campus in Logan between June 10 and 13.
The intensive four-day program introduces high school students throughout the region to the engineering profession and is sponsored by USU engineering alumni, school district foundations, engineering firms, and businesses. Students participate in a variety of Challenge Sessions taught during the week.
Among the 19 hands-on, competitive exercises called Challenge Sessions, students write a computer game, design computer algorithms, code breaking challenge; engineer algae to produce bioproducts and biofuels, and isolate spider silk-making genes to produce huge quantities of spider silk and learn about synthetic spider silk research. They also learned how to manipulate DNA to change the smells of fruits, put together a small steel bridge and test its structural soundness, build personal speakers, design a computer out of only a ping pong ball and a telephone, design their own aircraft out of balsa wood, and scale 90+ foot walls.
Engineering professors at USU donate their time to introduce students to their profession and challenge them in exercises which use math and science to solve physical problems.
