EMAGINE Outreach Teamvisits

Tamassee-Salem High SchoolIn December, members from the EMAGINE outreach team, consisting of Dr. Eric Davis and grad students Allison Jansto and Torrie Sewell, served as guest judges for two math-related projects in Ms. Tiffany Arnold’s Algebra II and Algebra II Honors classes at Tamassee-Salem High School in Salem, SC. The Algebra II class was tasked with designing and building a pumpkin catapult that would launch candy pumpkins onto targets at specified distances. They had to call on their knowledge of parabolas and the quadratic equation to model the flight of their candy pumpkins and make adjustments to their catapult. The Algebra II Honors class was tasked with designing a water park, as well as constructing a miniaturized model of the park. The students used their knowledge

of polynomials and factoring to determine the dimensions of the features in their water parks while staying on budget.

EMAGINE consists of faculty and students from several departments in the College of Engineering and Science who travel throughout South Carolina allowing middle and high school students to experience engineering for a day. Through hands-on activities and science projects, students are exposed to many engineering skills and design challenges, and are shown how engineering applies

to the real world. One main goal of this program is to show students that engineering is not boring, and there is a need for creative engineers as well as math and science majors. This team hopes the program sparks an interest in engineering and encourages students to consider Clemson University in their future.