IHI Employees gave lectures about how Jet Engine works at Three Junior High Schools in Soma City
Employees from IHI’s Soma Works conducted lectures for first year students at three junior high schools in Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture on June 21, 22, and 29, and on July 10 and 11. They gave lectures on how jet engine works. The students experimented with a propeller car to deepen their understanding about how these engines work. This curriculum was jointly developed by IHI and Ochanomizu University’s Institute of Science and Education. This was the program’s third year, with IHI employees serving as instructors for a second straight year.
The first half of the program covered the history of jet engines and the basics of how jet engine works. Students learned about the properties of air and water, the mechanism of combustion, the functions of force, and the regularity of motion.
The second half of the program covered experiments with plastic bottle cars. The idea was to resolve the mystery of why jet engine engineers enlarge fans. Experiments used propellers instead of fans. They assessed the rotational speed and times of small and large propellers, added more rubber bands on large propellers to equalize these factors, and adjusted conditions to compare how distances and travel times of the PET bottle cars differ solely according to propeller sizes. The students used the results to derive results from engineer perspectives.
The five-day program saw 305 first-year junior high school students take part. The feedback was excellent. One participant gained a better appreciation of science. Another was pleased to find how jet engines work. The program succeeded in demonstrating to the students how the science they learn at school relates to real world technology and manufacturing. IHI will keep engaging in activities to cultivate tomorrow’s engineers.