Engaging Young Students to Construction

How do we interest students in construction education and ultimately pursue a career in construction? Students form their individual career interests in their school years beginning as early as elementary school. As they progress in their educations, students are encouraged to seek higher education for varied professions. Construction offers a challenging and secure future to those who choose to enter into practice. However, it is a career that is often overlooked by students. As part of engineering forums that are offered in our area for regional school age students and their families, the Construction Engineering Technology program at the University of Maine (UMaine) sets up an informational table about our program along with a STEM activity. We engage students as young as elementary age by having a “hands-on” activity to build a tower as tall as they can only using supplied materials. These towers are built from uncooked spaghetti and mini-marshmallows. Students have seen these everyday materials, but had never tried to build anything with such items. Guidelines are minimal and students are allowed to use as much as they need. Through self-discovery, students find out what the best shapes are in constructing viable towers. They learn about tension and compression; they learn about brittle and malleable substances. Students readily adapt to make the towers work. Students of all ages can relate to the activity and can build with minimal direction. 5 Through 10 years of using spaghetti towers at student forums, the author has anecdotal observations of student interactions in constructing a defined project with unconventional materials. These tower projects engage students and their parents to build structures with constraints that challenge them. This simple project interests students and begins the dialog at young ages as to what engineers design and professional contractors build.