From Science Fair to Senior Design
Richard J. Puerzer, PhD (Industrial Engineering) Department of Engineering Chairperson and Associate Professor
Richard.J.Puerzer@hofstra.edu
Each year for the past ten years I have served as a judge for the middle school science fair in my home school district. As a parent and engineering educator, I view serving as a science fair judge as almost a civic duty, helping to support the school’s science programs. But I must admit that I really enjoy the task. Seeing all of the student projects, even those based on which ingredients make the slimiest slime or what conditions best cultivate mold in bread, reminds me of the curiosity that students are developing with regard to science and how our world works Occasionally, a project has a parent’s fingerprints all over it (one year a seventh grader included a p-value calculation in their analysis), but the vast majority of the projects demonstrate the students’ unmitigated desire to experiment and learn.
This unique and ever-present desire to pursue science-based knowledge is evident in all of our Hofstra Engineering students. There are numerous opportunities for students to experiment both within and outside of the engineering curricula Whether students are building and testing trusses in statics class, developing and optimizing a discreteevent simulation model of a food pantry, taking part in a summer research project, or, of course, working on a senior design project, students learn through experience. All of these projects are usually much more complex and sophisticated than what middle school students take on - I always expect my students to include a p-value when performing a statistical analysis. However, the goals of a middle school science fair are quite similar to those of an engineering senior design project: to not only teach and reinforce the understanding of scientific concepts, but also to instill and encourage the motivation, energy, and ingenuity in students.
The creativity that I see in many middle school science fair projects inspires me. I know that some (optimistically many!) of these middle school students will go on to college (hopefully at Hofstra!) to learn and grow, and then become engineers and scientists. Middle school science fairs and engineering senior design projects are empowering our students to be able to address and solve the world’s many problems and make our world a better place. [DeMatteis
