Thirteen engineers from the Gainesville and Jefferson Kubota plants paid an Earth Day visit to Martin Technology Academy of Math and Science Friday, discussing "green" engineering and how they apply this philosophy to their work.
The students, in turn, explained how they have spent the entire school year learning about the engineering design process and they were getting ready to apply their knowledge to a design challenge. Students were challenged to use their knowledge to build race cars from recycled materials. The engineers then met with small groups of students to evaluate their recycled racer designs and gave feedback on ways to improve the designs. Students will spend next week working to build the racers. Next Friday, the engineers plan to return and judge the final race.
"Our engineer gave us some really good tips about our design," said one third-grader. "Like he said instead of using the empty milk carton in our design, maybe use a water bottle with water in it to give our car more weight and it will go faster."
"I was interested to know that all the different engineers from Kubota have different types of jobs and are in charge of different parts of the engineering design process," said another third grade student.
"This is my second time at MTA and I love coming here to see how much smarter these kids are than I was in third grade," said Rohan Britton, one of the engineers
"I was really surprised to see how far along in their engineering design process they already were!" added engineer Alex Ginn.
"There was a lot of critique that we were providing to them, but it was good that they were able to come back and provide support for their design decisions. This will really help them in the fabrication process," engineer Henry Hebebrand said.
