MechE Associate Professor Natasha Vermaak leads the Thermostructural Lab where she addresses problems of structural and material degradation, durability, and resilience with implications spanning energy to aerospace applications.
During Spring 2025, Vermaak visited Northampton Community Colleges Reibman Hall Children’s Center Lab School for a career day with 3-4 year olds (Figure 1). The Reibman Hall Children’s Center Lab School is located on the NCC Bethlehem campus and serves children up to kindergarten entry with an Art as a Way of Learning® curriculum. Vermaak introduced the engineering basics of observing the world around us and being able to measure length, mass, and time, bringing some of a mechanical engineer’s tools of measurement for a show and tell (rulers, measuring tapes, stop watches, and personal protective equipment). A reading of Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty showed that mechanical engineers try to make what’s in their imagination real, they try to understand how things work, and how to make them better, and most important of all: failure is an essential part of learning and engineering design!
Vermaak also visited the local Fountain Hill Elementary School (FHE) and one of the 1st grade classrooms to lead an aerospace engineering themed lesson and activity (Figure 2). There’s a lot you can learn about the mechanics of flight that is relevant to modern airplanes by examining the simple paper airplane! Inspired by The Paper Airplane Book by Seymour Simon, she introduced the forces we need to defy, leverage, and mitigate (gravity, lift, thrust, and drag) with simple crumpled or flat paper drop and lift experiments. And by trying out several paper airplane design iterations with the 1st graders, she showcased how small changes (taping wings at a slight incline, adding paperclips to the fuselage, etc.) can make a big impact on flight capabilities. Lehigh University is a Lead Partner in the Community School Initiative with FHE, find out more here.
Vermaak is thankful to Mrs. Cruz and FHE and NCC Reibman Hall Children Center Lab School teachers and leadership for facilitating these visits. To learn more about Lehigh University's community outreach programs and educational partnerships, visit Lehigh.edu/community.
