Idaho Environmental Coalition engineer Kevin Young explains how engineers use infrared cameras to look for unwanted heat generation in machines at an Earth Day event in Idaho Falls earlier this year. In the world of engineering, unwanted heat usually means wasted energy.

Idaho Environmental Coalition engineer Kevin Young explains how engineers use infrared cameras to look for unwanted heat generation in machines at an Earth Day event in Idaho Falls earlier this year. In the world of engineering, unwanted heat usually means wasted energy.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) technical staff at the Idaho National Laboratory Site are doing their part to pass the baton to the next generation of aspiring scientists and engineers by emphasizing the importance of science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) disciplines and promoting innovation and problem-solving with area students.

Kevin Young, an engineer with EM contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition’s (IEC) Calcine Disposition Project, recently taught students about kinetic and potential energy at the Museum of Idaho’s Night at the Museum event, which gives students an opportunity to spend the night at the museum and learn new STEAM concepts.

Young and other IEC engineers set up a station with rubber-band helicopters to help the students learn about energy properties. Young said seeing the excitement in the student’s eyes as they experience the science is one of his favorite parts about volunteering at STEAM events in the community.

“It is so exciting when you can see the lightbulb come on for the students when they understand a scientific concept,” he said.

Young said he likes to show the students the scientific process of starting with an idea, creating a design for the idea and then testing the design to see how it works.

“There is always an excitement to see how the test will work, and I like to help the students experience that and show them that this is something that scientist and engineers get to do everyday as a job,” he said.

Idaho Environmental Coalition engineer Kevin Young instructs students how to make an electromagnet at STEAM Day at the Idaho Falls Zoo earlier this year.
Idaho Environmental Coalition engineer Kevin Young instructs students how to make an electromagnet at STEAM Day at the Idaho Falls Zoo earlier this year.

Young said a major part of his outreach is to help students have a positive experience with science and engineering so it can help them to be interested in those fields in the future.

“The students may not fully grasp the concept of kinetic and potential energy that day, but hopefully the excitement they felt is something they will remember, and maybe they can apply that excitement to becoming an engineer in the future,” he said.

IEC has committed to support STEAM initiatives in eastern Idaho, such as Night at the Museum, Engineering Day, Earth Day and other events. Young volunteers at those events, too.

The company also purchased a gas chromatograph recently for a local high school. Students use the gas chromatograph to separate compounds by vaporizing samples to identify and analyze the components of a liquid mixture and to determine the relative concentration. Chromatography can test drug and food purity, among other things.

Around 100 students a year will get to use the gas chromatograph in the classroom to help them better understand intermolecular forces, which in return also helps them to be better prepared for college and internships they may have in the future.

The EM project that Young supports must be complete by 2035 to meet a milestone with the state of Idaho. It’s possible that one or more of the students he instructed at a STEAM event could eventually intern with the project or help to bring it across the finish line.