West Point Bridge and NASA Engineering Design Challenge Teacher Workshop
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:30 am – 3 pm
ONLINE Registration
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The WV Department of Transportation (WVDOT), the WV Department of Education (WVDE), and the NASA IV&V Facility Educator Resource Center (ERC) are co-sponsoring a teacher workshop on the West Point Bridge Design Competition and NASA’s Engineering Design Challenges to be held on Wednesday, February 17th in Fairmont, WV. This date has been chosen so that your students may participate in this year’s bridge design competition and the NASA Facility will host the session due to their centralized location.
If you are not familiar with
the West Point Bridge Design Contest, it is an initiative sponsored nationally
by The American Society of Civil Engineers and the U.S. Army Recruiting
Command, and is coordinated in West Virginia by the WVDOT with additional
support from the WVDE and the Rahall Transportation Institute (RTI).
While the competition is open to any students ages 13-grade 12, we want to
emphasize that this program is appropriate as a classroom activity for any
students in middle and high school. This ‘hands-on, minds-on’
activity seamlessly integrates engineering concepts into your math, science,
and technology curriculum and is a shining example of 21st Century
Skills. The competition occurs annually with students downloading
software to design their unique bridge, then uploading their submissions online
at http://bridgecontest.usma.edu
between January 3 and March 30th. “In
WV, the top ten middle and high school teams will be invited to compete in a
real-time bridge designing contest this April in Huntington with all-expenses
paid stay for the students and a chaperone.”
The event is described by most students as, “awesome!”
The agenda is to learn about the bridge design software and run a mini-competition in the morning (9:30 am – 12 pm), break for a short lunch (provided), and use the afternoon to conduct a hands-on training on NASA’s Engineering Design Challenges (http://edc.nasa.gov) including heat shields, launch platforms, and lunar plant growth chambers from 12:30 – 3:00 pm.
While the workshop, all materials, refreshments, and meals are provided for free, your school/county is requested to provide a substitute and to cover the mileage to Fairmont. Space is limited and is on a first-come basis so please register as soon as possible at:
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact myself at the NASA ERC.
Sincerely Yours,
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Todd I. Ensign
Program Manager
NASA IV&V Facility
Educator Resource Center
Email: todd.ensign@ivv.nasa.gov
Voice: 304-367-8438