Science and Engineering Day held Saturday at USU

Science and Engineering Day, hosted by the Utah State University Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, was held in multiple buildings on USU Campus Saturday Feb. 20.

Science and Engineering Day (formerly known as NASA Space Science Day) started at 10 a.m. with the registration of 260 fourth- to eighth-grade students, which was 70 more than last year.

The event was kicked off with opening ceremonies with members of USU’s Hispanic Professional Engineers talking about the importance of science and engineering and why the kids should be thinking about jobs in the those fields.

Although none of the groups were based solely on either engineering or science, the students were then split into groups based on their interests and allowed to rotate through workshops throughout the day. These workshops included building rockets and aluminum boats, making and designing a parachute which could prevent an egg from breaking, building towers from spaghetti noodles and marshmallows, and creating 3-D objects.

“We had ATK (an advance weapons and space system company) come up and give a chemistry workshop which showed students how different compounds like CO2 work,” said Jorge Espinoza, a coordinator of Science and Engineering Day.

As soon as the workshops ended at 3:30 p.m. students were allowed to go home and encouraged to share what they learned with their friends and family.

“With this event we aim to teach science and engineering through fun hands-on activities… it was a huge success this year,” Espinoza said.

—shaniehoward214@gmail.com