USS Missouri Memorial goes 3D with STEM program

PEARL HARBOR –  On Monday May 23, 2011 at 9:00am, a 3D Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Pre-Engineering/Design workshop for the students of King Intermediate will be held at the Battleship Missouri Memorial, when the students will have a historic tour of the many features and will see how STEM is directly integrated with some aspects of the Missouri.

The Japanese surrender of World War II was signed aboard the USS Missouri in 1945. After she was decommissioned, the ship was brought to Pearl Harbor and has been a museum since 1998.

The rise of STEM, (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) based programs allow Hawaii’s youth the opportunity to explore STEM fields and develop skills that will provide them with the tools for the brightest future. 

Dan Parsons, Education Director of the memorial has partnered with STEM and 3D Academy in order to make these workshops on the Missouri possible.  “When the students can get out of the classroom and step aboard this ship, they realize that this is living history as well as real world technology.  The learning becomes all the more valuable to the students and teachers,” shares Dan.  One student from the previous 3D CAD workshop said, “We learned a lot on the Missouri and now understand how what I am learning about STEM applies to the real world.”

The students will go on the historic tour, followed by the workshop.  The intent of these workshops is to integrate and engage students in the aspects of STEM and how they are related to CAD, specifically design and engineering.  Utilizing software and hardware tools is one of the focuses for the workshop that helps to create a better understanding of how to create designs that are functional, and to provide a method of prototyping and testing to validate their designs.

“We take certain parts of the ship and create lessons based on their purpose and functionality so students can relate how their core science and math courses are integrated with all aspects of STEM,” explains Collin Kobayashi, 3D Academy President.  At the end of the workshop, students will be able to use 3D CAD software to create and document designs of specific parts of the ship and do analytical testing to see how these parts perform.

3D Academy is driven to provide 3D CAD training programs that engage, excite, and introduce students/teachers to STEM through the engineering process.  The training workshop on the Missouri takes actual engineering concepts and puts them into context that allows the students to investigate the design process, understand why certain materials are used, and why the design was created.