HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- "We're here to try to help you learn more about engineering and have a really fun morning," Sam Dibert said to a group of about 20 teenage students.
Dibert is the President of Dibert Valve & Fitting in Richmond. The teenagers are from the ACE Center in Henrico County.
Johanne Ghianni, their math coach, said the teens are already smart, but this field trip is meant to get them thinking.
"Get them thinking about how I'm going to use my education in my career. And I think it has the kids get a better buy-in," she said.
The students visited Dibert Valve & Fitting to learn more about the engineering part of STEM fields.
"We reached out to the Henrico County ACE program just to get involved with them and this is just the beginning," Dibert said, “but we've tried to show them a few neat things today.”
The students are in classes that will prepare them for employment and further education.
There are classes in carpentry, cosmetology, pharmacy, and more.
"There's an important academic aspect to engineering," Dibert said, “but the really fun part and the reason they get into it is because you get to solve problems."
Field trips like this can orient the students to high-tech industries like semiconductor, shipbuilding, chem, biotech and research.
It’s the way education is going and it's the way education should be; project-based learning." Ghianni said.
Building Better Minds with Rob Cardwell airs each Wednesday at 6 a.m.
