Volunteers from throughout ITS Arizona recently participated in an opportunity to meet with valley students and spark their interest in Engineering! The Classroom Visits were a component of Discover Engineers Week: the week of February 19-23, 2024 that is dedicated to celebrating the positive contributions made to society by Engineers. https://discovere.org/programs/engineers-week/ This year, our ITS Arizona community came together in February to achieve:
7 individual classroom visits of 20-30 kids each at different schools
+ 1 entire 6th grade class of an Elementary in Phoenix
+ 4 different classrooms for 6 different periods of a Jr High in Gilbert
…….all from 9 ITS Arizona volunteers
>~ 850 new sparks created and invites back for next year
The engineering mentors met with K-12 students and talked about what it means to be an Engineer and how their creativity, hard work, and innovation can help others. A HUGE SHOUT OUT goes to our wonderful volunteers that made this E-Week successful for these students!
- Gustavo Arechiga – Kimley-Horn
- Alex Weber – Kimley-Horn
- Hunter Venne – Dibble Engineering
- Anthony Virrueta – WSP
- Darryl Heaton – Sensagrate
- Taylor Dunkle – Kimley-Horn
- Michael Washkowiak – Iteris
- MariaAngelica Deeb – City of Mesa
- Deanna Haase – Kimley-Horn
The schools that participated in this year’s ITS Arizona classroom visit program include:
- MET Professional Academy as part of Peoria High School
- Moon Valley High School
- Copper Canyon Elementary School
- Ironwood High School
- Independence High School Engineering Program
- Greenfield Junior High School
ITS Arizona is excited to have had the opportunity to meet with students and talk about the great things that can be accomplished with Engineering!
Reminder note: there is NOTHING that is holding you back as a professional member of this community from coordinating with your previous school, or offering up to a school district your time at classrooms that would love hearing from a professional. We have materials prepared, ideas to pull from, lots of experience with classroom visits from this group, and resources at the E-Week web link above to support any ITS Arizona member in their pursuit to get the word out about Engineering!
Thank you again to all of our volunteers! Imagine the impact we can make with even more volunteers next year!
