Even though we are scrambling to finish up the semester and get out and enjoy some nice weather (yeah right?!?), students are still finding time to show people around IRE. Over the past couple of weeks, there have been groups of people visiting IRE for a number of reasons.
Two weeks ago, IRE and Mesabi Community College teamed together to host a high school engineering competition. High school students from around the Range spent the morning in the IRE lab learning about what it means to become engineers and experience a part of the problem solving process that many of us tackle every day. Groups of students were given arrangements of solar panels, several different types of light sources, multimeters, mirrors, and basic wiring tools. The students were asked to develop a model of what electrical current they expected generated by the solar panels. The student were then expected to predict what would be generated in their circuits when the judges of the competition, IRE students and faculty, lighted the connected solar panel with an unknown light source.
These events are great for students in high school to get experience in engineering right from the source. Students really enjoyed the competition and so did the staff. Hopefully IRE will be able to host more events to show the community outside of already decided engineering students. Engineering is a field that has a huge demand for graduates and the US needs engineers more now than ever before. We are hoping that some of the high school students are now even more excited to start down the path of becoming an engineer.
Proofed By: Brianna Frey
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