NEU Student Volunteers!
On Friday, September 26th, 2025 we had our first STEM field trip of the 2025-2026 academic school year! The Edward Everett Elementary School from Dorchester (Boston) came with 45 fifth grade students for a day all about engineering! Students learned about engineering and the engineering design process and did three activities focused on different fields of engineering: What is this Tech? (Mechanical Engineering), Catapults (Mechanical Engineering), and Paper Rockets (Aeronautical Engineering). During What is this Tech?, students are tasked with identifying mystery objects and determining what they may have been engineered for and what they are called. Try it yourself here! During Catapults, students are tasked with designing a tension or torsion catapult using popsicle sticks, rubber bands, spoons, and duct tape. They are scored based on their accuracy (how close to the bullseye) and precision (how often they hit the same place). Their target: Nick (me, the lead staff member). Despite the enormous target (Nick is 6’6″) – this is not an easy activity: many groups scored just a few points, but a few catapults did exceedingly well! Then, students put their creativity to the test and designed and built paper rockets – designing a fuselage, nosecone, and rocket fins. When tested outside, the best designs went over 100feet up! Unfortunately, we had quite a few rocket failures due to fuselages being too tight – something we’ll need to emphasize futu
Alumni Claire and new volunteer Iris help students solve “What is this Tech?”
re students to avoid.
Northeastern student volunteer turnout was awesome for this first field trip! Alumni volunteers led the day – Claire starting the day off with Engineering intro, Reid and Franklin with Catapults, and Ella with Paper Rockets. And six new volunteers! Looking forward to a successful new year of STEM field trips!
