Sarah Marchant, Betsy Withum, and John McCarthy

"Bridging To The Future," the winning engineering and technology project put forth by Marchant and her colleagues Withum and McCarthy, is designed to present cutting-edge curriculum in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. The focus of the program is to combine the important elements of 3-D computer modeling and hands-on structural building activities and concepts. Plans are to have multimedia presentations and virtual 3-D models shared with the community during the Reading Municipal Light Department's annual Earth Day display. This program will motivate students towards globally competitive STEM careers and create ownership for learning through the design and building of their own structures. It will also introduce them to many important and future-thinking technologies like renewable energies. Additionally, the students who go through this program will possibly be prepared for the higher-level Computer-Aided-Design programs in high school.