2023 IRE Engineering Expo an exciting moment for students

The IRE Engineering Expo provided students a hands-on chance to find out more about engineering, hear from engineers from local companies, complete a design project, and engage in fun learning activities.

This was free for students in grades 9-12. About 150 of them attended the Minnesota North – Mesabi Range Virginia campus.

We met up with Izzy and Ayden from Warroad, who had a good time figuring out how to pick up a ping pong ball with something they designed themselves with paper, paper clips, string, and tape. And they had to do it from as far away as possible, without launching it off the ground or rolling it.

Izzy’s team took the paper and rolled it diagonally. “It made them longer, and we used less paper that way,” she explained.

Ayden told us, “I like trial and error. I like learning how to do things, and taking things apart to see how they work.”

Iron Range Engineering is a program of Minnesota State University Mankato and Minnesota North College.

Students in the IRE program, like Jonun McGraffey, lent a hand. “Some of these kids could be our classmates or our co-worker. If we can help get them on the path to be an engineer, that’s all the better.”

The Range Engineering Council supported the event.