back to school

Went to a middle school in Olney with three of my coworkers today. We paired off and took over a science teacher's classes for the day; BP and I got a teacher with only four periods out of seven, so we had a comparatively light load. We began each period with the obligatory propaganda about the coolness of an engineering career, gave a brief overview of what engineers could do, and finally woke them back up by asking them about heat transfer problems in the Xbox (a real-world engineering example that they all seemed quite happy to talk about). Then we told them that they had to compete to build a load-bearing "water tower" made of skewers, sponges, and pipe cleaners, and that their designs would be tested by being hammered at the base to simulate earthquakes... and that's when they got interested.

Eighth graders are exhausting. They think they know enough to plunge into something with full expectation of success, and they're brash enough about failure to blame their structural mistakes on the materials instead of on the design. But at the same time the enthusiasm was adorable, and they certainly kept BP and me running around to answer questions, clarify rules, etc. Their gleeful appetite for destruction was also quite amusing. I was pretty worn out by the end, but the kids were definitely exhilirating. It was worth getting up at 5:30a. (And getting out at 3pm wasn't bad either. Gotta love middle school schedules.)

Glad I don't have to do that every day, though. It would wear me out; I have renewed respect for eighth-grade teachers (and their bladders of steel!). All right, time for bed...