Atkins High School to participate in the N.C. Science Festival

By: By Kim Underwood | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: September 03, 2010

LOOKING DEEPER: SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH SCIENCE

At Atkins High School's science festival, you can get tips from the starting quarterback on keeping your home computer in tip-top shape, learn how to make an animated short, and squish a strawberry and look at its DNA.

With its three schools-within-a-school -- the School of Biotechnology, the School of Computer Technology and the School of Pre-engineering, Atkins offers a wealth of learning possibilities. So, when Terry Howerton, the academic coordinator for the School of Biotechnology, heard about the statewide science festival being planned for Sept. 11 through Sept. 26, he and other teachers at Atkins thought that it would be fun to participate.

"This helps foster an interest in science," Howerton said. "We're always looking for opportunities here at Atkins to help people connect."

"I would like the community in general made more aware of what we do here and what we offer," said George Eckart, the academic coordinator for the School of Computer Technology.

Other organizations, including SciWorks and the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem, are also scheduling activities for coming days. Atkins' STEMulating the Mind Night is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 14. (STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering Math.)

Howerton, Eckart and Leslie Eaves, the academic coordinator for the School of Pre-engineering, organized sessions -- some as short as 15 minutes -- designed to give a taste of what the school offers in a such areas as fingerprinting, dissection, mathematic odds and electronics.

To ensure that everyone has a good time, sessions will be geared to age groups. Third-graders will enjoy some -- the session on making slime comes to mind. Others, such as talks on science-related careers, will likely be of more interest to high-school students and adults.

A career in science doesn't mean being locked in an office or lab, Eaves said.

She said she knows of a baseball player who majored in mechanical engineering who ended up finding a satisfying career designing baseball bats.

Preparing for some paths might require a couple of years at a community college. Others might require longer.

"There is a path for everybody in a STEM-related career," Eaves said.

People from the community have agreed to come and talk about their work.

For instance, Keith Hobgood from Out of Our Minds Animation Studios in Winston-Salem and John Davenport, who works on traffic flow and other engineering design challenges, will be there.

People can keep the fun going after they leave.

After working on Atkins' sophisticated animation program, people can go home and download an earlier version that is now available for free.

"It's a 5- or 6-year-old version of what we use in the classroom," Eckart said. "It's still pretty cool."

About 25 students will either be presenting or helping with presentations. Charles Westbrook will be offering Top 10 tips on keeping your computer running smoothly. In addition to being Atkins' quarterback, he's a computer buff.

"I like being able to take them apart and make them better," Westbrook said.

kunderwood@wsjournal.com

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