NSBE Magazine - Fall 2010 - 38

“this is fun! i think i want to be an engineer.” — SEEK participant Aaron McCoy
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at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., attended the events and addressed the students. “We are happy to have our people out here and to have the helicopters and cutters available to physically show the kids what we do,” Adm. Hewitt told NSBE Magazine. “Say a kid wants to go into engineering? The Coast Guard Academy is one of the top engineering schools.”

to serve my country like my brother in the Navy. I want to do the engineering. I want to do all of it,” said Brandon McCoy. “This is fun! I think I want to be an engineer,” added Aaron. Their mother, Jackie McCoy, couldn’t have been happier about their newfound educational interests. “I enrolled them in the program because I thought that this was a tremendous opportunity from NSBE to take part in a program that put an emphasis on innovation. Both my sons are very creative. They love invention and finding out how things work,” she said.

ContinUing groWth
The next day, students at Woodbridge, and the sixth through eighth graders at SEEK’s other D.C. location, Friendship Public Charter School’s Chamberlain Campus, participated in the National Water Initiative, an exercise developed by National Lab Day. Students, with some parents in tow, collected water samples from various locations in and around D.C. for testing. Students learned about pH levels, specific definitions regarding safe drinking water and what access to clean water supply means for them and the environment. Several students commented that this kind of work would be a good career choice for them. SEEK participants in Ohio — sixth through eighth graders at St. Stephens Community Center in Columbus — also had the opportunity to experience STEM firsthand. There, students worked on “gliders,” “motorized toy cars” and “gravity cruisers,” as part of SAE International’s

more than 500 parents and other adult caretakers packed pryzbyla auditorium at Catholic University in d.C., for seeK’s parent orientation on July 10.

“I was very happy to be a part of bringing in helicopters to do a flyby of the NSBE SEEK summer camp, to help illustrate to the kids what a STEM education could allow one to accomplish in the future,” said Cmdr. Makell, a helicopter pilot and 25-year member of the Coast Guard. Cmdr. Makell enrolled his two children in SEEK — daughter Selena, 10, and son William, 12. “For the first time, they are able to bond with college students that are doing well in their STEM fields,” he said. “The image that will last in their minds is that there are many African-American youth getting a good education, and they should, too.” The Coast Guard vessels and personnel made a strong impression on aspiring engineers such as brothers Aaron and Brandon McCoy. “I am having a lot of fun, and I want
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nsbe magazine • fall

“A World In Motion.” The students in Columbus also experienced the National Science Center’s Fast Track Curriculum. Fast Track teaches team-based challenges while using remote-controlled cars to systematically collect and analyze data to maximize the performance of the cars. This project emphasizes skills such as measurement and basic computation, averaging data, graphing data manually and in Excel spreadsheets, making simple equations and graphing them, and using higher order problem-solving and thinking skills. Students in Columbus also participated in the National Water Initiative. Various partnerships were instrumental in making this year’s SEEK Program a resounding success, says Franklin Moore, manager of NSBE’s Pre-College Initiative. “The additional curriculum resources that were available this year have really enhanced the SEEK program, especially the addition of the National Water Initiative, which worked well with the current curriculum from the Society of Automotive Engineers,” says Moore. Moore adds that SEEK continues to grow and that feedback from parents and sponsors this year was exceptional. Mack is also optimistic about the future of the SEEK camp, while urging engineering companies to step up to the plate. “All the engineering companies tell us that they need more engineers, but few are supporting these programs,” Mack says. “We should have camps all across the country. But I am proud of what we have done.” ■ Lynette Locke is a freelance writer based in Baltimore, Md.
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2010

NSBE Magazine - Fall 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NSBE Magazine - Fall 2010