(November 5, 2009) — Although Clark’s new engineering teacher, Hannah Goldberg, has only been a high school teacher for a couple of months, she has already grasped students’ interest with hands-on projects such as building bridges out of toothpicks and marshmallows and making towers out of newspapers. “It was challenging,” sophomore Amalia Hakobyan said of the newspaper project. “It kept leaning over, so it was height versus stability.” Nevertheless, Hakobyan finds the class intriguing. “I never knew that there were so many types of bolts!” she said. Despite the hands-on projects, Goldberg said that students “need to get through the boring textbook stuff to really get to the fun.” She is especially looking forward to next semester, when her students will be able to focus more on the ROV competition. Though Goldberg has given guest lectures before, it is her first time teaching in a classroom setting. “It’s been exciting,” she said of her experience with the class so far. “I really enjoy the class.” Goldberg initially got involved in engineering during her college years at the University of Michigan. During her freshman year, she learned about the Student Space System Fabrication Lab, where she worked until her senior year. At the laboratory, students of different engineering majors worked on projects like building spacecrafts. During her freshman year, Goldberg was mentored by graduate students. By the time she graduated, she was mentoring others at the laboratory, which is where she “really got into the idea of teaching engineering,” she said. Five years ago, Goldberg began work at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. There she was involved in building spacecraft and doing robotic space exploration. Around her first year there, she met a former Clark graduate who convinced her and her friend to assist Clark’s Robotics Team. As a result, Goldberg became associated with Clark. When the position for engineering teacher became open, Goldberg received a call from Principal Doug Dall, asking her if she would like to fill the position. “The classroom setting is challenging,” Goldberg said. “It’s also challenging balancing my work at JPL versus my work here.” However, Goldberg is taking advantage of her experience, trying to use her knowledge from JPL to teach her students in class. “It’s been fun,” she said. “Definitely a learning experience.”