The ninth grade honors math students had an opportunity to take the math that they were learning and see it put into real life practice when they went to the BYU Technology and Engineering Expo. The students were given hands on experience learning about the effects of radiation, calculating the speed of light using chocolate in a microwave, and experimenting with creating their own refrigeration system. These were some of the many activities that were in a hands on lab with the assistance of the students in the Chemical Engineering program at Brigham Young University.
The students had the opportunity to visit several engineering labs while they were there, including the space lab - where they were able to see some of the prototypes for a satellite the students were building to go up into space in June, the origami lab - where they were able to see how the students were building Kevlar shields for multiple police officers that could be taken up and put down in 2 seconds or less and protect them from flying handgun bullets, and a number of other engineering labs.
The students also had a chance to do some building of their own. They designed bridges that could hold large amounts of weight, drove remote control vehicles with their cell phones, created large structures with marshmallows and spaghetti, and designed their own robots that could color. These activities were put on by the variety of different engineering clubs that are available at Brigham Young University. The students all had a fun time and learned quite a bit in the process.