AKRON, Ohio — It is a tradition in Akron that has lasted 24 years.
This past weekend, the Goodyear STEM Career Day event for local middle school students was held at Firestone CLC.
“What we're going to do today is talk a little bit about automation and some good careers that you can have,” the presenter said to a classroom of local middle school students.
It wasn’t all talk. Students got clues to decode a combination to unlock more clues, and solve a problem in a fictional cookie factory. That’s how they learned what Rockwell Automation does. The career day is an opportunity for area companies to interact with future employees.
“How they utilize engineers and scientists and mathematicians in their companies and in their organizations. And how we can support them in their journey along learning about STEM careers,” explained Brandy Moorhead from Goodyear.
“I hope to really have fun and just to see amazing things,” said Christian Price, a 7th grader from East CLC.
Over 400 middle school students came to Goodyear’s STEM Career Day. NASA showed them tires that will explore other planets. Goodyear demonstrated the manufacture technique of extrusion with playdough. The company also explained how rubber and plastic are both polymers, while breaking out the liquid nitrogen. That made the rubber brittle enough to snap in two. And that software is instructions that even humans, pretending to be robots, follow to the letter.
The day’s biggest challenge was inspired by real life… and the movies. During the Apollo 13 mission, NASA engineers were forced to redesign an air filter on using only materials found on board the spacecraft.
The students at Goodyear's STEM Career Day faced a similar task.
“They gave us random materials and we are going to make a filter out of it and we are going to pick up a piece of paper with the filter,” said Donald Kennedy, a 6th grader from NIHF STEM Middle School.
If the filter fit on a vacuum cleaner and had enough suction to lift a piece a paper, it was a success.
“I learned how to work with my team and use my ideas to combine them with theirs,” said Andon Canterbury of NIHF STEM Middle School.
It was a full day of hands-on STEM learning.
“It felt like nice because I got to see a whole bunch of companies I like, and they make great food and I got to ask a lot of questions,” added 6th grader Jaden Blair from NIHF STEM Middle School.
“There's a lot of energy with these students. They're really excited about exploring and understanding more about what engineering, science, technology and math can offer for them,” said Moorhead.
The Goodyear STEM Career Day has become so popular, they have split it into 2 separate events, one for high schoolers and one for the middle schools.