Mars students learn about real-world concepts, careers
ADAMS TWP — Engineers from Aesynt, a health care automation firm in Cranberry Township, on Friday morning hoped to convey to Mars Middle School students that their profession can be fun.
The engineers shared their message with all of the school’s seventh and eighth graders during their science classes.
The students watched short videos about types of engineering required to build airplanes, bridges and other items, as well as one on Aesynt and their robotic medication dispensing system used in hospitals.
Engineer Anthony Cinalli explained that a worker in a large hospital’s pharmacy department dispenses about 10,000 medications per day for all the patients in the building. That job can be not only monotonous, but errors could have serious repercussions.
He said Aesynt engineers built a robotic system in which a laser selects and retrieves the medications using a laser and bar code.
“You start off with a problem, and then engineers get involved,” Cinalli said of his profession.
The students were then split into teams of five and given uncooked spaghetti and small gumdrops, which they used to build the tallest tower possible in 15 minutes.
Each member of the winning team, which constructed a 45-inch tower complete with ground-level supports to increase stability, got a $5 online gift card.
“It was fun,” said seventh grader Mason Koma. “We won and all the other buildings were falling down.”
His classmate, Zachary Pendarvis, said he learned that the structure needed low-level support to prevent it from toppling, and that engineering can be a fun career.
“I’ve always wanted to be an engineer,” Zachary said. “You get to design stuff, and I’m OK at math.”
Alec McEwen, whose father served as one of the engineer volunteers from Aesynt, approved of his dad’s performance in his science class.
“I was kind of nervous, but he taught us what we were supposed to learn,” Alec said, “so it was a good day.”
He said his father often regales the family with interesting stories of Aesynt projects, and he has taken Alec to work as well.
Mitchell McMarlin, who was also on the winning team, said his cousin is an engineer.
“It would be a pretty cool job,” Mitchell said. “You get to build a lot.”
The most important lesson Mitchell learned was that a team of people will be more successful than a single builder.
Mitchell also said his team won because they used the best engineering concepts.
“You need a small base, with supports on every level,” Mitchell said.
Middle school Principal Rich Cornell said the Aesynt engineers approached the school last year about bringing the concepts of their profession into the classrooms.
“It’s a perfect opportunity to have engineers working in the real world show the students how the information they are learning in school applies in the engineering world,” Cornell said.
