The Career Expo will host highly engaging sessions for a select number of students who travel from distant schools. Sessions are designed as  hands-on opportunities that will develop an interest in a variety of Health, Tech, and Trades careers, each one hour in length. Below are short descriptions of the sessions for this year:

• Session 1 – What is 6ft long yet still microscopic? It is said that DNA provides the instructions for life itself. But how do four molecules repeated billions of times along the length of the human genome translate into a human being?  Come and discover more about DNA and even extract some of your own! It doesn’t hurt a bit!  This session is facilitated by Carrie Leopold M.S. and her Inspire Innovation Laboratory.

• Session 2 – Scratch Programming: In careers related to Computer Science and Software Engineering, programming is an essential skill, particularly for those wanting to work in the gaming industry.  In this session, students will be challenged to develop a computer game using the Scratch Programming language. This session is provided by the Software Engineering program at Valley City State University.

• Session 3 – Engineering Challenge – Trusses: Commonplace to building structures are trusses, supporting roofs, and the heavy weights of snow. Trusses are widely used in building structures, bridges, airplanes, and supporting electric power lines. In this session, students will design a truss system, build a working model, then compete against other students and their designs for the system that supports the greatest load. Dr. Dilpreet Bajwa of NDSU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering will be hosting this session.

• Session 4 – Engineering Challenge – Paper Table: For every ton of paper that gets recycled it saves 20 trees, 3.3 cubic yards of landfill, 7000 gallons of water and produces 73% less air pollution than making paper from new materials. What else can we use paper for? Using just newspaper and tape, can you design and build a table to support your weight? Can you collaborate with a small group of students in a team environment to brainstorm a best solution to this challenge and demonstrate resourcefulness and clever design using only basic materials? Hosting this problem based learning exercise is South East Education Coop’s LaCosta Potter.

• Session 5 – Exploring the Universe in the Geodome: Students explore the universe in this state of the art 3D simulation of the stars, learning about star formation, galaxies, nebula, and super-nova. Participants will “fly” in the Geodome in this immersive and memorable experience that focuses  aerospace careers.  Facilitating the session will be Astrophysicist Dr. Timothy Young from the University of North Dakota Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Each session will run for one hour three times: 9:15 am, 10:45 am, 12:15 pm, participating students allowed to attend one of the three sessions. Attendance was limited to selected schools, for more information on these sessions, for more information please contact Jenny Erickson.