Learning Engineering Skills the Lego Way, Part 2

Learning Engineering Skills the Lego Way, Part 2 Learning Engineering Skills the Lego Way, Part 2 Learning Engineering Skills the Lego Way, Part 2Part One of Learning Engineering Skills the Lego Way introduced you to Play-Well TEKnologies teaching concept. Part 2 describes the companys curriculum and concepts. In one example of the story strategy, an objective or theme for a young group of kids could be to understand how a crawler moves. The given project could be building a mechanical rabbit, whose movement is similar to a crawler. The story might go that the rabbit needs to search for Easter eggs and gather them in order to save the day. Then the discussion segues into gears, gear ratios, and other concepts.The idea is how do we make it super fun for them to be solving the next problem.Jeffrey Harry, Play-Well TeknologiesWere almost going backwards with them, Harry says. We get them excited about the idea and then teach concepts and mechanisms. They get super excited that the rabb its could save the day. What they havent realized is that they now know how gears mesh, what a 51 gear ratio looks like, what an output gear looks like, and what a linkage is. There are all these subtle things they pick up.The program, available in 29 states and in France, reaches about 100,000 kids a year. The main focus is on K-8, but there are also programs for preschoolers and adults. Instructors come to the classes with more than 20,000 pieces of Legos that include gears, axles, pneumatic tanks, worm gear housings, and more.For You How to Mentor Young Engineers About 80% of Play-Wells projects are mechanical, such as core builds like bulldozers, catapults, dump trucks, excavators, Ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, and carnival rides. Logan Ingulli shows off some of the projects he built in the Play-Well class. Image Play-Well TEKnologiesWe often use many of the same mechanisms and concepts but framed differently, Harry says For example, if were doing a fire truck f or a kindergarten/first grade class well show them a basic gear ratio a manual gear drive car with back wheel drive and maybe a ladder with a linkage that locks into different places and can move up and down by your hand.When building a fire truck, the second- through fifth-grade students end up building a worm gear housing and motorized lift that lifts up to 90 degrees and have a turret on the side that rotates 360 degrees.There are many different mechanisms to add that make a fire truck more complicated. Our goal is that after they leave class and binnensee that in the real world, they say I know how that works or Ive seen that before or when driving down the highway, they see the drive shaft underneath a truck, and say I built that in school, he says.Although Play-Well has no formal research on how many of their students become engineers, Harry says he and the Play-Well team often run into kids they have taught who are entering complex STEM competitions or hear stories from paren ts who say their kids are using vocabulary they wouldnt have otherwise.We want to create a fun engineering world to explore and problem solve, then tell kids that this is an actual profession that they can do when they grow up, Harry says. Thats when you see some kids eyes light up.Nancy S. Giges is an independent writer.Read MoreHow to Raise a Coder in Four Easy StepsEnergy Storage Moves to New HeightsFlying to Space on Butterfly Wings

Use Non-Employee Referrals for Hiring Success

Use Non-Employee Referrals for Hiring Success Use Non-Employee Referrals for Hiring Success You should in the view of John Sullivan, a noted human resources expert from the Silicon Valley. He calls it an emerging trend and one that should be embraced because it expands the number of individuals who are looking for top talent for your firm beyond the traditional employee base.Sullivan offers these advantages to the non-employee referral conceptMore talent scoutsUsing other peoples timeHigh-quality referralsA proven approachA different tischset of prospectsIncreased speedLow-costYou may strengthen your relationshipsFriends may also become prospectsAs Sullivan notes, many employers say using employee referrals increases the speed of hiring. Also, people doing the job hunting for your company may end up wanting to work there. He also adds that companies and organizations like Verizon Technology, Internosis, Clearlink, the U.S. National Guard, and the information technology company CACI are already embracing non-employee referrals.Any non-employee referral program needs to supplement current employee referrals. Sullivan said a framework should be established to make the program succeed.Set quality expectationsRequire friends to provide detailed information when they referProvide a referral toolkitProvide ownership and motivationTake advantage of every opportunity to ask for referralsMinimize administrative roadblocksThe last point is important, Sullivan says, because referrals should be expedited in the human resources process and any payments for referrals shouldnt be delayed because it could hurt your companys brand and discourage further referrals.A company or organization shouldnt start off with grand rewards for non-employee referrals, Sullivan advises. Rather than offering a large reward, initially try low-cost rewards like free product samples, a booklet of movie tickets, a Starbucks coffee card, or a drawing for a fun vacation trip, he says, adding some re ferrers might like to see a donation made to a charity, which helps your business, too.Sullivan suggests the following folks could make good non-employee referrers, or as he calls them friends of friends.Contingent , seasonal, and part-time workers who are not considered as full-time employeesMembers of your board of directorsReferences provided by your quality hiresMajor vendorsClose family membersConsultantsLong-term individual customers or the employees of corporate customersYour college internsTop quality job applicants or finalistsCorporate alumni (former top employees) who can refer.Sullivan admits his idea may not be perfect. He says, As with any program, the friends program can carry with it some potential issues. The most common one is that if you are offering a reward of over $100, the administrative burden of having to issue non-employees 1099 forms to cover tax. Even though it is not proved to be a herausforderung in well-designed programs, executives may also worry that friends referrals wont be of a high enough quality.The Wall Street Journal tackled the issue, too. In her At Work column, Lauren Weber calls them amateur recruiters. She says, Companies have long used bonuses and other rewards to get employees to recommend their friends for jobs. About 25% of all new hires come from referrals and 90% of those are from current employees, according to HR consulting firm CareerXroads. Now, thanks to a labor market where the demand for people with hot technology skills outstrips supply, some firms are expanding beyond their employee base.One New York firm offers a roundtrip airline ticket to New York City as a reward (but apparently no lodging or food). Other reward programs give cash to off-the-street referrers. In 2012, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles sought IT professionals who were certified in a healthcare application called Epic and offered a bounty of $5,000 to be shared by the person hired and the non-employee who referred him or her , she added.

9 Ways You Can Still Land a Summer Internship

9 Ways You Can Still Land a Summer Internship9 Ways You Can Still Land a Summer InternshipYou are in college, you want an internship for this summer, and you do not have anything firmly lined up. So what should you do?1. Keep ProspectingUntil you have an offer in writing, you must keep prospecting. Verbal conversations that say we are going to offer you a role, OR we are working on it, dont count and are NOT binding. You only have one, this summer. Keep hunting until you have a solid offer.2. Stay OrganizedJob (or intern) searches have a lot of contacts, follow-ups and next actions in play simultaneously. You need a centralized document that you can use to stay focused and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.3. Where There welches InterestOK, you spoke to a recruiter or hiring manager at a company and you felt great. You thought they were interested, and you would have accepted if offered but they went silent. Continue to go after them. Let them know you are talking to others but have them on the top of your list (if you do). People who hire are very busy and sometimes they too drop the ball. Further, they are speaking to multiple candidates but only have X number if internships. Stay visible and attempt to connect (Voice Mail or Email a couple of times a week). If you follow up professionally, it will increase the fact that you are the kind of professional they want to employ. But, again, keep seeking other offers if they have not solidified one with you.4. Go to the Career Center for GuidanceBrainstorming with a qualified professional can help if you are stalled or trying to better the hand before you. The Career Center can help in two waysThey knows companies that might be a fit for you and are hiringThey can help with both your search and the skills you employ5.Follow Up with the Recruiters You Have MetDuring your search, if you have done it right, you have amassed contacts that have become a part of your network. Follow up and engage with them. They may have not had an available role when you last spoke, but maybe a candidate they were pursuing just dropped out, OR, they know of another recruiter that could use you.6. Review People in Your Network and Seek AssistanceMake sure you are leveraging everyone you know, includingProfessorsAdvisorsFriends who are looking or have already secured an internship for the summer. (People in this latter group might have taken one but have another two that they would have taken if they didnt get the one they just accepted. The best technique here if for them to introduce you.)Friends and familyFormer employers7.See if There Are Any More Career Fairs on unigelndeThere are generally more recruiting functions than the semesters Career Fair. Often colleges within the university have their own.8. Go To Sites Where Great Internships Are PostedYou can go to some great sites and search for internships. By way of example, Vault lists both internships and jobs. Additionally, they show what interns thou ght of the experience after they left. A wealth of information is to be had.9. Reach Out to a Mentor to Game PlanIf youre stuck, reach out to a mentor and try to kick around some ideas, then implement that advice.What you cannot do is nothing. You have to continue to apply yourself and dont give up. Internships are the stepping-stones to multiple offers.Final note it is not just about scoring an internship, it is about nailing that internship. When you do secure one, know it is a 60-day job interview and you want to nail it. Nailing it begins right now, prior to showing up. Here is afour step processin order to do just that.Good luck.A version of this post previously appeared on LearnEarnRetire.