Eight students from Benton High School completed engineering workshops at Louisiana Tech on Saturday, April 5th.  Four teachers also participated in the program.  The workshops were part of the Louisiana Tech STEM Talent Expansion Program (LATechSTEP).  This program is funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.  The goal of the program is to identify, recruit, and retain talented students into engineering fields of study.  Tech hopes to provide teachers with the information they need to continue to interest students in engineering careers and recruit students directly through participation in the program.  The students built catapults and modeled their performance using physics equations and statistics.  Students and teachers also participated in discussions and briefings on topics ranging from high energy physics and the design of a fuel efficient vehicle, to international communications and trends in global business.  LATechSTEP is an ongoing program and BHS intends to recruit another group of students to participate next year.

Participants:

Students:  Hannah Cherry, Brandon Copeland, Mark Gragston, Eduardo Lopez, Daniel McMillon, Cully Stearns, Colby Wischoff, Justin Price.

Teachers:  Angel Geuin, Dan McClellan, Marvin Nelson, Stewart Thompson

Pictures from the workshops (more to come) 

LATechSTEP website