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"At Hyster Corporation I ran stress tests on their equipment. I love to tell my students that my first job as a Mechanical Engineering Technician was wrecking forklifts."
Mechanical engineering technicians use math and science skills to
improve energy systems and mechanical systems. They help design and test
mechanical equipment and manufacturing processes. They may also train
customers to use new equipment.
A 1972 New Year's resolution and a community college guidance counselor
launched Jan Chambers into an enviable career as a college instructor in
a field that is almost invisible to women. She was tired of a job shuffling
papers and decided to go back to school, but she didn't know what she
wanted to do. The counselor, whose name she can't remember, suggested
mechanical engineering. It was one of those cosmic events: right person,
right place, right time.
Jan was concerned that she would be a lone woman, surrounded by white men. While that was mostly true, it hasn't held her back. Jan's fascination for the subject diminished any cares she had about who her classmates were.
Her first job was with Hyster Corporation. When Hyster designs a new forklift, they build one or two for testing. Jan tried to tip them over, overheat the engines, break the forks, and ruin the hydraulic system! After three years Portland Community College offered her a temporary teaching position. When the college entered a joint venture with a large company called Wacker Siltronics, Jan trained their workers. She still loves teaching after 15 years. Her children attend day care and school close by, making the juggling act much easier.
Jan teaches beginning students in Mechanical and Civil Engineering Technology. Included is a section on statics, which studies the effects of forces on objects at rest. With enthusiasm Jan describes a truss, asking these questions: What is unique about this arrangement of sticks? (It's a triangle!) What can you use it for? (It's the structure that holds up roofs and bridges.) How would you calculate the amount of force that the truss can handle? (Then she shows how you calculate the force it can take.)
In teaching math, Jan works to ensure that everyone gets the concepts, even if it means explaining it many different ways. "I never, ever talk down to the students, never say, "Oh, this is easy!" Students aren't allowed to say it either. "It's a real block when someone says it's easy, when it's not for you."
"I ran into a former student at Costco and I remember him well because I'd judge my lectures on his reactions. He had a very mobile face, so when he went from that (squinting, frowny face) to THAT (wide-eyed happy face), I knew it worked! His wife said he was a real success story, that he had struggled in school, but now he had a job, good money, security, and everyone was happy! Tah-Dah!!!"
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