Young women at VTHS eye careers in engineering

VERNON-The Women in Engineering class at Vernon Township High School is in full swing and taking advantage of a U. S. Department of Labor project that links the female students with women mentors in science, engineering and technology. GEM-SET links more than 400 girls nationwide via e-mail with more than 100 female mentors in companies such as Honeywell, IBM, Dow Chemical and DaimlerChrysler, as well as leading universities. At Vernon, the girls have been participating in problem-solving and design activities under the direction of teacher Steve Megna. They have been learning the safety guidelines for the industry tools and machines, as well as researching and presenting solutions to engineering problems, which started with paper towers and bridges and will increase in difficulty to include fluid controlled robots, mousetrap vehicles, marble machines and burglar alarms. Some possible future projects are being planned, such as mentoring students at Cedar Mountain Elementary School to help increase math proficiencies.