Teach for America and Tau Beta Pi
Armed with orange Popsicle sticks, metal folding pins and red plastic fasteners, members of this university’s Tau Beta Pi chapter treated local middle school students to a hands-on lesson in bridge-building on Friday.
The event was the fourth in a series of workshops the national engineering honors society hosted in partnership with Teach for America as part of an effort to encourage low-income students to pursue careers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. At Friday’s workshop, about 30 students from Nicholas Orem Middle School in Hyattsville filed into the J.M. Patterson woodshop, where they were broken into groups and tasked with constructing a small bridge in just one hour.
As the students worked, members of Tau Beta Pi circled the room to teach and encourage them along the way. At the corner table, one member explained why a triangular design makes more sense than a square design. With wide eyes, the smiling students learned their bridge would not easily collapse with a triangular base.
For some Tau Beta Pi members, the workshop gave them the chance to impart their love for their field to the next generation.
“I did stuff like this when I was their age, and then that’s how I got interested in engineering,” sophomore engineering major Anna Whittaker said.
Friday’s workshop also included a tour of the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility on the campus, a magic show, lunch and a talk from engineering faculty members. Two days earlier, members of Tau Beta Pi also visited the middle school to host a rocket-building workshop.
Tau Beta Pi President Mark Reese, a senior materials science major, said he began working with the students last semester. The goal, he said, is to help them learn more about a subject they typically have no experience with until they attend college.
“For a middle schooler, I think this is really exciting for them and it’s something they can think about when they get older,” Reese said.
Alex Krupp, an associate for the National Alliances Team at Teach for America, said these workshops inspire the students who attend them.
“I’m thrilled by what they’re doing, and it shows that Teach for America is not alone in the movement to end educational inequity,” Krupp said. “I believe they bring a very specific awareness to help combat the issue.”
Tau Beta Pi plans to meet with the students for one more workshop this semester, in which they will launch rockets and build race cars.
“We’ve really gotten to know these students so they recognize us; they know our names and we can see their growing interest in what we’re teaching,” Reese said. “That’s really cool.”
