JETS Update

Join JETS for two exciting E-Week Global Marathon phone dial in sessions Thursday, March 23 at 7:00 pm and at 8:00 p.m. The first JETS session will discuss spatial visualization skills, why they are critical to success in engineering education and in the profession, and what students with underdeveloped spatial visualization skills can do to enhance them.

The second will address what students, parents, and teachers can do to help students get a solid math foundation and for greater success in a college engineering or related technical program. Interested students, parents, and educators will dial in a tool free number to listen to panelists discuss these important topics. The last 5 to 7 minutes of each segment will be dedicated to taking questions.

The call in number for both sessions is 1-877-228-3600. The participant passcode is 226054.

While the E-Week theme specifically focuses on increasing the number of girls in engineering, both JETS sessions will be of interest to not only girls, but all students, parents, and educators.

High School Students Use Math and Science to Design Award Winning Technological Solutions and Help People with Disabilities in the Workplace

Gulliver Preparatory of Pinecrest, Fla., took the first place prize at the first annual JWOD/JETS National Engineering Design Challenge (NEDC). Gulliver's winning invention, the "Simple Electronic Ergonomic Box Opener," will help people with arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome to open boxes safely by allowing users to open boxes without straining the fingers. The device employs sophisticated electronic components and programming to control the cutting blade and ergonomics concepts in the casing design. More....

This year thousands of high school students participated in an incredibly successful competition. From all across the country (including the Virgin Islands), students competed to solve problems from many challenging and diverse engineering categories. When JETS asked the coaches why they have their students participate in TEAMS, these were some of the answers that were received:

• It is an excellent program which that challenges and stimulates students to achieve at incredibly high academic levels.
• My students enjoy the challenge and like to see the type of questions that they will encounter in a college course in the future.
• It is an opportunity for my students to peek into an engineering future. As well, it provides my students enhancement in math, science, and problem solving.

If you missed out on this year's TEAMS Competition, mark you calendar now for the 2007 season (February 3rd– March 11th, 2007). Next year's competition promises to be better than ever. JETS is currently working on some new and exciting pieces that will compliment the actual 2007 TEAMS Competition. Stay tuned for future updates on what is in store.

For those of you that did participate this year and are anxiously awaiting the results of the State and National rankings (to be posted on the JETS website), here are the dates to remember: State rankings will be posted on March 27th and National rankings will be posted on April 21st.

Deciding on a College Career?

High school students sometimes decide on their college career paths without really knowing what those courses of study will involve. In order to help students determine how well-prepared they are to enter an engineering or technology program in college and to answer questions students have about engineering and technology study, JETS has developed the National Engineering Aptitude Search+ (NEAS+) academic survey. The NEAS+ enables students to make informed decisions about their futures.

For more information on the NEAS+ and how to place an order please visit: http://www.jets.org/programs/neas.cfm.