This is the third year of an “unlikely pairing” between Calvin’s ENGR 101 class and Grandville-Calvin Christian’s second grade classes, said electrical engineering professor Monica Groenenboom.

Calvin hosted an excursion for the second graders last Friday. The visit, which was themed “being a college student for a day,” gave elementary students an opportunity to step into the Calvin experience.

The GCC students attended ENGR 101 presentations, walked through the ecosystem preserve and the Bruce Dice Mineralogical Museum and experienced the spiritual side of Calvin by attending chapel.

A learning opportunity for all

The second graders saw ENGR 101 presentations about the engineering design process that is involved in constructing an automaton. Each ENGR 101 team picked a theme for their automata –– themes including Spider-Man, the sea and animals –– which were primarily constructed out of wood or cardboard using mechanisms like gears, cams and pulleys.

According to Stephanie Systema, a second grade teacher at GCC, the tenacity that engineering students showed in overcoming engineering challenges is something that her young students can apply to their lives inside and outside of school.

“I think watching college kids talk about the fact that their creations did not turn out perfect the first time, that they made mistakes … they kept going, and they had to persevere … are really good touchstones for second graders who are learning to do the same thing at a second grade level,” said Sytsema.

Having seen videos of the automata, the second graders were excited to see and play with them in real life. Second-grader Selah said she was most excited about getting “to see the automatas … and to play with them.” 

Through watching ENGR 101’s videos, Selah said, “you have to solve really hard problems and persevere,” which many of her fellow students –– including Elise, Arie, Landon and Ezra  –– agreed with.

First-year chemical engineering student Wilton Long said that through this project, he learned that engineering design “takes a lot more time than [he] thought.” 

Ava Tatko, a first-year civil and environmental engineering student, agreed that she initially did not expect the process to take so long. “The project took me 20 hours outside of class with testing and then realizing something doesn’t work and then you have to go back and redesign it and fix it,” Tatko said.

Chemical engineering professor Jeremy VanAntwerp said that this was his first time teaching ENGR 101 in conjunction with GCC’s class since he last taught ENGR 101 in 2012. “Having an actual client that can interact with the students makes the projects a lot more real, which then gives the ENGR 101 students a richer design experience,” VanAntwerp said.

As part of training students to view engineering as “both a science and an art,” VanAntwerp said this project highlights the “art” component.

The partnership is also beneficial to ENGR 101 students. “I think that this shows a lot of promise that such young people are showing interest in something so early on,” said first-year engineering student Nathan Barr.

Tatko agreed that having a client for their ENGR 101 automata project, “made the project feel more realistic.” She said, “It was fun to know that somebody else would be benefiting from these projects other than just us.”

Students from GCC also attended chapel, an experience that Sytsema said helped her students learn about “the wonder of God’s gift and how he designed things to move … the wonder of faith that ties us … –– Calvin University and Grandville Calvin Christian Schools –– to [the] community,” said Sytsema.