Instead of playing with videogames and toy airplanes, kids are learning how to design them first, thanks to programs offered by an education-based company, Engineering for Kids. The franchise is popping up across the country, offering hands-on learning for ages 4–14 in science, technology, engineering and math, otherwise known as STEM. Minnesota’s only franchise is based out of Plymouth and owned by Armando Mojica and his wife, Ria, who started their business last October.
This summer, kids across the city have been part of programs and summer camps focused on getting them excited about engineering. Themes included Engineering of Food, Engineering of Medieval Times (bridges, castles, catapults), Engineering of Travel (rockets, airplanes, cars) and Engineering of Pirates (shipbuilding, paddle boats, pulleys and sailboats).
The teaching portion of each class is only 10–15 minutes long; after that, kids work with teachers to build, test and redesign their projects. “One of our main objectives for the class is for kids to succeed in doing something,” Mojica says. “The best thing is for them to learn from failure and improve upon it.”
