AZUSA, Calif., March 16, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Azusa campus recently hosted a friendly Lego™ STEM Project competition involving more than 70 students from Slauson Middle School in Azusa, with the aim to familiarize the youths with the practical application of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
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Volunteer employee mentors representing a wide range of engineering disciplines participated in this year's STEM competition, which featured the "Let's Go Green" theme. In small teams, students were challenged to design a product from their Lego™ kit that would benefit the environment. The teams then presented their design to a panel of eight student judges for scoring to determine the team that best met the criteria of the challenge.
"In a fun and creative way, the competition is designed to pique the students' interest in the STEM disciplines," said Stephen J. Toner, vice president of Northrop Grumman's Azusa Operations. "The experience will help influence the students to seriously consider a career in the engineering and technical fields."
Students were also presented an overview of the different engineering disciplines followed by a panel discussion with Northrop Grumman engineers who relayed their own personal experiences about how they decided to pursue an engineering career.
"Slauson Middle School is fortunate to have such a good working relationship with Northrop Grumman," said assistant principal Lorraine Pegorari. "Watching the mentors interact with students with their design and function questions was exciting. The engineers opened the door for our students to see how their current and future studies could lead them through challenging math and science courses to careers as engineers in a variety of fields."
The Lego™ STEM Project was coordinated by Adelante, an all-inclusive Hispanic employee resource group at Northrop Grumman committed to fostering leadership through networking, professional development and community service.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information.
