Flying Concrete

A group of students wrapped up an intro to engineering camp from this summer. The camp paired eighth grade students and SUNYIT college professors in a hands on engineering experience. These students took part in four classes over a two week period and one professor believes a camp like this one is important. "It get's kids interested in engineering, engineering science and math are cornerstones of the country. Exposing these to the students early on maybe they'll get a taste for this early on." Students studied four types of engineering and today they concluded the civil engineering part of the camp. "Well today we are throwing our frisbees for distance to see how straight we can throw it and how many times we can throw it without it breaking." The frisbees' were made of concrete and binding materials like grass and sticks. Students had fun building and throwing them. "I had a lot of fun building mine because you just got to make it into a certain shape, I think throwing them is harder because it slips so it's hard to get a really good grip on it." Participants spent six hours this summer on the campus of SUNYIT but according to them it was time well spent. "Definitely especially if engineering is something you want to go in to and it's definitely something I want to go in to so I think it was a lot of help." This was the first year the program was held and they hope to continue it next summer.