Welcome New Tea The EIR Program is new EIRs and teach 2008-2009 school y welcome the follow Barrie, Copper Cliff Mississauga, Nepe Richmond Hill, Stra *EIR Federico Alva Ltd. is matched with Gregory Elementar *EIR Eric Berthelot, matched with teach Public School in To *EIR Alice Bom, EIT teacher Vivian DeL in Copper Cliff. *EIR Nordia Brown, matched with teach Boylen Collegiate In *EIR Amalesh Chak Inc. is matched with Glenforest Seconda *EIR David Jackow Associates Ltd. is m Desrochers at Pine *EIR Paul Longo, E matched with teach High School in Oak *EIR Megan McMur matched with teach McMurrich Jr. Publi *EIR Ramona Mirto Matthew Webbe at *EIR David Nyambi Division is matched Wismer Public Scho *EIR Zefe Osime, E Connections Inc. is Onofrio at St. Charl School in Richmond ENGINEER-IN-RESIDENCE NEWS October 2008 www.eir.ca ms! off to a tremendous start: 21 er teams have joined us for the ear. We take this occasion to ing engineer and teacher pairs in , Kitchener, London, Markham, an, North Bay, Oakville, throy, and Toronto: rez, P.Eng. of Zenix Engineering teacher Sandra Forzley at St. y School in Nepean. P.Eng. of AEN Consulting Inc. is er Andrea Panday at Lescon ronto. of Vale Inco is matched with uca at Copper Cliff Public School EIT. of VitalAire Canada is er Joy Carter at Nelson A. stitute in Toronto. raborty, P.Eng. of MechatroSoft teacher Stephen Roscoe at ry School in Mississauga. ski, EIT of J.L. Richards & atched with teacher Linda wood Public School in North Bay. IT of AMEC Americas Ltd. is er Paul White at T.A. Blakelock ville. ray, EIT of Halsall Associates is er Kamla Rambaran at c School in Toronto. rabi, EIT is matched with teacher Avondale Schools in Toronto. , EIT of Walmart - Wireless with teacher Cheryl Lawrie at ol in Markham. IT of Enbridge Electric matched with teacher Michael es Garnier Catholic Elementary Hill. *EIR Kamlesh Patel, P.Eng. of GlaxoSmithKline Inc. is matched with teacher Initha Subramaniam at Cedarwood Public School in Markham. *EIR Susan Jahn Rosada, P.Eng. is matched with teacher Bruna Gagliardi at St. Cosmas and Damian Catholic Elementary School in Toronto. *EIR Kurtis Rinas, P.Eng. of Jebco is matched with teacher Guy Grondin at Cedarwood Public School in Barrie. *EIR Tomasz Rybak, EIT of University of Western Ontario is matched with teacher Brenda Collins at St. Jude Catholic school in London. *EIR Nigel Thompson, P.Eng. of The Walter Fedy Partnership is matched with teacher Marilyn Lajeunesse at Monsignor Gleason Catholic School in Waterloo. *EIR David Underwood, P.Eng. is matched with teacher Melissa Carnelos at St. Bernadette Separate School in Oakville. *EIR Warren Van Goozen, P.Eng. of Wescast Industries Inc. is matched with teacher Sharon Clements at Caradoc North School in Strathroy. *EIR Alex Wong, P.Eng. of Honsel is matched with teacher Tharankini Nithiy at H.G. Bernard Public School in Richmond Hill. *EIR Thomas Yeung, P.Eng. of Ontario Power Generation is matched with teacher Ruth Kostash at Coppard Glen Public School in Markham. *EIR Thas Yuwaraj, P.Eng. of Fralex Therapeutics Inc. is matched with teacher Anita Parker at Our Lady of The Annunciation CES in Richmond Hill. We wish all volunteers new and returning the best of luck for the 2008-2009 school year. Engineer-in-Residence News Orientation Session – Tuesday October 7, 2008 On October 7 2008, 45 people, EIRs and teachers, attended the Orientation Session. EIR Project Leader Jeffrey Crelinsten, EIR Coordinator Janet Sandor and Director of Education Services Mars Bloch of Let’s Talk Science gave lively, informative presentations at the Ryerson International Living and Learning Centre. PEO Chapter Coordinator Marisa Sterling shared her positive ideas and views about volunteering in the program and praised the volunteers for giving time in helping out. Veteran teams who shared their experiences were EIR Ravi Mahabir, P.Eng. of Golder Associates with teacher John Bortolotto of St. Therese of the Child Jesus Elementary School and EIR Vesna Nikolic, EIT of Honeywell Aerospace with teacher Mary Beth Tonnelly of Christ the King Catholic School. Among the highlights of the orientation session, the new teams worked in groups to build straw towers to support a marble. Priority Schools – Calling Engineers available in the area. Every year, some EIRs leave the program. Family commitments and work transfers all play a part. This leaves terrific, enthusiastic schools without an EIR. Schools looking for volunteer engineers are: Eastern Ontario Region St.Luke CES, Ottawa by Fallowfield Road and Woodroffe Avenue Lisgar Collegiate Institute, Ottawa by Elgin St. and Laurier Avenue Centennial Public School, Ottawa by Bronson Avenue and Gloucester St. Hopewell Avenue Public School, Ottawa by Bank St. and Col. By Drive/Echo Drive J.H. Putman Public School, Ottawa, by Hwy 427 and Woodroffe Avenue. East Central Ontario Region Markham Gateway Public School, Markham by Steeles Avenue and Markham Rd. Windham Ridge Public School, Richmond Hill by Bloomington Road W and Yonge St. Northern Ontario Region Lockerby Composite School, Sudbury by Regent St. and Walford Road. If you know of anyone in their neighbourhoods interested in volunteering for the EIR Program, please pass them this information. EIRs and Teachers busy building their towers at the October 7, 2008 Orientation Session. Research In Motion Sponsors the EIR Program We are very proud to announce Research in Motion (RIM) as the newest sponsor to the EIR Program. Based out of Waterloo, Ontario, RIM, maker of the Blackberry, is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market and was founded in 1984. It is an honour and privilege to have RIM support our cause and demonstrate a commitment to the students in our community. Activity Recording Forms Every year we update the EIR Program Guide with exciting classroom activities. The 2008-2009 version consists of 93 classroom tested activities indexed by grade and strand. All of the K-8 activities have been updated and re-aligned to the new curriculum and they are available online at www.eir.ca. Our newest activities are: • “Building Structures for a Purpose” submitted by EIR Louise Jack, P.Eng. • “Infared Webcam” and “Pop Bottle Rocket” submitted by EIR Marc Fricker. • “Building an Anemometer” and “Building a Wind Turbine” submitted by Jan Jofriet, P.Eng. • “Water for the World” submitted by Francois Nzotungwanimana, EIT • “Edible Cell” submitted by Vesna Nikolic, EIT Please complete the Activity Recording Form included in your package with any activities that you found successful. This form is also available online. We would love to share your success with members of the Program and continue building on the future edition of the Program Guide. Engineer-in-Residence News Notes in the Classroom – by Bob Thomas, P.Eng., EIR at Rideau Vista Public School in Westport. It’s early morning — and we (my wife and I) are loading an unlikely assortment of stuff into the car. Depending on the day, it might be hammers, nails, and 2x4’s, or a bunch of cameras, or some light bulbs and switches, or maybe there’s a 12-speed bicycle in the car and a boat trailer (with winch) behind. Then it’s off to “our” school. And yes, they’re actually going to let us into a classroom with all this stuff (except the boat trailer!) — in fact, they’re glad to see us. This is because I’m one of a privileged group called Engineers in Residence, and we’ve come in to do some hands-on science with an engineering slant. We check in at the office, and make our way down the hall. What chaos! What confusion! Think Brownian motion! And then, out of the blur, faces we recognize. “Hi, Mr. Thomas!” “Hi, Mrs. Thomas!” And suddenly there are a bunch of volunteers to open doors and carry things. The bell rings, the National Anthem starts — and we realize everyone’s at their desks, and quiet — maybe it wasn’t really chaos at all. The teacher does a brief introduction, and I’ve got the floor. I’ll start by asking some questions, or maybe use a brief story related to today’s subject. I always ask the class a question every couple of minutes. This is generally enough to get them engaged. They’re much more responsive than most adult groups, and aren’t afraid to be wrong. About ten minutes of this, and we’ve covered enough ground that we can try some hands-on. This could be: • Operating the doors and valves in a model of a canal lock. They have to figure out the correct sequence, subject to rules — you can’t open a door against water pressure, and you can’t swamp the tin boat. We always have lots of old towels on hand for this one. • Building and testing a stone arch dam. Besides building it the right way, we make sure to build it wrong — with the arch downstream — because the resulting collapse illustrates the point and, with due respect to civil engineers, most of what they build isn’t much fun when it’s working as intended. Ottawa school — “The engineer would get fired if he did this”. “Oh, noooo!” Village school — “The engineer would get fired”. “He should be!” • Running a “really unfair” tug-of-war with the two biggest boys pitted against the smallest girl. But the girl gets to use the winch on the boat trailer. Hey, we only said it was unfair. We didn’t say to whom! And the guys will line up eagerly to be humiliated in this way. • Looking at the workings of a pinhole camera, a 1920’s press camera, and 1970’s single-lens reflexes. • Building a section of the wall in a house with framing, sheathing, housewrap, insulation, wiring, vapour barrier, and drywall. The class take turns hammering nails and driving screws with a cordless drill. We discuss the function of all the pieces. • Wiring up switches and light bulbs. Try to wire it so the bulb lights when both switches are on (they find this easy). Now do it so the bulb lights when either switch is on (they find this much harder). And so it goes. It’s demanding, and the preparation can be a lot of work. So why do we do it? By now, you’ve probably guessed that this can be a lot of fun, and that’s true, but it’s only part of the story. It’s also a chance to put something back into the school system that we and our kids grew up in. As an engineer, I have something special to offer. I’ve spent my career applying science and math to real-world problems. I’m aware of the connections between the science that’s taught in the classroom and the way our modern world works. How do I know we’re accomplishing anything? Much of the time, there’s no way to be sure. I think this is generally true in education. You show people things, try to get them thinking, try to open a few doors, but the actual benefit may not appear for years, and you probably won’t see it. It’s a leap of faith. But there are some hugely rewarding moments, great and small, that I’ll remember for a long time, for example: • A student, on the verge of failing, picks up some ideas from our canal presentation and turns them into a good science fair project. Her self-confidence and performance improve greatly. • I’m doing a presentation on telecommunications, talking about pulses of light representing data bits coming out of an optical fibre, and a student asks how we know when one bit ends and another begins. This is a subject that a lot of good engineers spend a lot of time on, so it’s a challenge to give a short but useful answer (I think I succeeded). But the real point is that this Grade Eight student had enough insight to realize that the problem existed, and enough curiosity to ask the question. • In a session on the properties of wood as a building material, I point out the repetitive pattern of knots in a sheet of plywood and ask how the veneer was made. A Grade Five student immediately rolls a piece of paper around a pencil, then holds it up to show how the veneer must have been peeled off the log. Aha! Insight! I’ve met a dozen or so EIR’s, and we’re a mixed lot. This isn’t a cookie-cutter program. The main thing we have in common is that our eyes light up when we talk about what we’re doing. Bob Thomas, P.Eng. is an EIR at Rideau Vista Public School in Westport. Bob volunteers with his wife Catherine Thomas and is paired up with three teachers (grades 4-8) this year. He has been an EIR for six years. Bob is retired and was employed at Nortel as a Member of Scientific Staff. Who’s Who at the EIR Program Office: The Impact Group Jeffrey Crelinsten Janet Sandor Project Leader EIR Coordina Tel: (416) 481-7070 ext. 26 Tel: (416) 481 Fax: (416) 481-7120 Fax: (416) 48 Email: jcrelinsten@impactg.com Email: jsando The EIR program gratefully acknowledg Government, The Impact Group, Cones Engineering) and Research In Motion. Share your Story! If you’d like to submit an article to the EIR Newsletter or the News section of the website, please send it to Anton Ajon at anton@impactg.com. Professional Engineers Ontario Anton Ajon Holly Anderson, P.Eng. tor EIR Support c/o Chapter Coordinator -7070 ext. 25 Tel: (416) 481-7070 ext. 33 Tel: (416) 840-1116 1-7120 Fax: (416) 481-7120 Fax: (416) 225-8168 r@impactg.com Email: anton@impactg.com Email: educationoutreach@peo.on.ca es the support of Professional Engineers Ontario, the Ontario toga Rovers & Associates, University of Waterloo (Faculty of