Engineering classes offer credit for high schoolers

Staff Report
The Collegian

Valley high school students with an interest in engineering will once again have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the field next semester by taking a Fresno State course.

The class, Engineering 11: Engineering applications, is offered each semester for high school juniors and seniors with a GPA above 3.0 and an interest in the subject matter.

Program director William Wright said the purpose of the course offering is to give young students an overview of different fields of engineering by giving them lectures and projects from a number of disciplines.

“In one or two week segments they’ll be learning about different areas of engineering,” Wright said.

As part of the semester-long course, students will undertake numerous hands-on projects including construction of small bridges and towers, which are tested and ranked for load-carrying capacity.

Wright said one of the motivations for offering the course is to spark interest in engineering among students who might otherwise pass it up.

“Part of it is just community service — right now the national doesn’t have as many engineers as it needs,” he said.

Students enrolling in the program are required to pay $9 and can receive college credit for it, though Wright said it is unlikely to count toward an engineering degree.

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