Engineering students helped destroy more than 200 bridges Saturday morning to teach local students engineering fundamentals.

A cheer of ‘Three, two, one — Bust that bridge!’ accompanied each test and destruction of the student-built bridges in the fourth through sixth grade category.

Students in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science volunteered at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology as part of the Build-em and Bust-em Bridge Building competition.

Now in its 11th year overall and sixth year at the MOST location, the annual competition requires teams of two to three students in the fourth through 12th grades to construct a bridge from 15 2-foot-long pieces of balsa wood and glue, said Peter Plumley, exhibits project manager at the MOST and an associate professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Syracuse University, in an email.

SU engineering students facilitated the Saturday morning event in which the structures were tested with equipment provided by the engineering department to determine how much weight each bridge bears, said Lauren Silverman, marketing intern at MOST and a junior advertising major.

Student participation at the event reflects the uneven demographic representation in the science and engineering fields. The sixth through eighth grade category is generally more than 50 percent female, Plumley said, but the ninth through 12th grade category is more male-dominated.

According to the latest data from the National Science Foundation, 1,310,000 females were employed in science and engineering fields in 2006, compared to 3,714,000 males. A total of 3,677,000 males and females were white, 808,000 Asian, 197,000 Black, 230,000 Hispanic and 19,000 American Indian or Alaska Natives.

In addition, 29.5 percent of college freshmen women intended to major in science and engineering fields, compared to 41.1 percent of freshmen men in 2008, according to NSF.

Silverman said she believes female students are not encouraged to enter the math and science fields as much as male students, noting interest in math and science fields among middle school students is relatively equal between genders, while in high school the ratio of interested female students tends to drop. This is reflected in the attendance at the bridge building competition, she said.

‘There are always challenges when you’re in a underrepresented group,’ said Julie Hasenwinkel, program director of bioengineering at SU. These challenges include a lack of peer support, relatable mentors and a consequent difficulty in envisioning a future in the field.

Hasenwinkel also suggested that the perception that science, technology, engineering and math fields are more demanding may affect the decisions of women in particular to enter the field because a demanding career may not coincide with other life goals a woman may have.

Plumley said he believes the bridge building event encourages female and minority students to enter the field by giving students confidence in designing and building skills and introducing the fundamentals of science and engineering at a young age.

‘One of the missions of the MOST is to provide programming to secondary grade students (particularly 6th to 8th) that is educational, fun and inspiring,’ he said. ‘Students who participate in MOST events are impacted by the experience in a very positive way.’

Hasenwinkel said she considered the event a ‘great opportunity’ for young students.

‘I think this is a very important part of maintaining the pipeline — both male and female — going into the STEM fields,’ she said.

Diversity within the field is an important goal, Hasenwinkel said.

‘Every group brings their own perspectives to things,’ she said. ‘ … We want the work that we do to have input from a broader group because that will raise the quality of the work.’

nagorny@syr.edu

Published on November 13, 2011 at 12:00 pm