As science and technology have become more central to modern society,
           more jobs in science and engineering have been created. The contributions
         of scientists and engineers extend beyond research and development and
       throughout the realms of teaching, business, industry, and government.
    People with bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in science or
engineering are forming companies, managing businesses, practicing law,

                    formulating policy, consulting, and running for political office. They are forming
       global communities of common interests that transcend the differences among individuals,
corporate endeavors, or nations.

Read the information on choosing and attaining a career at Careers in Science and Engineering. The information is very general, but quite informative.

Discuss with your mentor what kinds of classes they took in high school and college. Find out if there were any high school classes that helped better prepare your mentor for college. Find out what courses in college were important for your mentor's future career.

This activity is designed for girls and their female mentors.

Read Career Profiles. It contains the stories of women that have careers in the fields of engineering and technology. Each woman tells what her job is really like and how it compares to the expectations she had when she began her career.

Another good article is Yes, She's Still an Engineer! It describes an engineer and what her first five years on the job was like.

Discuss with your mentor what it is like to work in a field that has been traditionally dominated by men. What are the challenges she faced? What are the challenges that you think you might face when you enter the workforce?

Visit SodaPlay and click on the Sodaconstructor link. You'll want to read through the information links at the bottom of the page. You'll also want to enroll in sodaplay so you can save your project and share it with your partner.

The project for both mentor and student is to build a "thing" that will move across the box. This is basically a virtual erector set with muscles. Be careful, this can get to be addicting! Share what you have learned with each other. Get that synergy working!

In this activity, you are going to build a bridge and have it tested for structural soundness.
Open Virtual Laboratory. Click on the link to Bridge Designer. Read through the information
and then give it a try.

Discuss with your partner the kinds of things make a good bridge. Remember each of you has a lot of knowledge about bridges; you may have walked or rode over some in your lifetime. In doing so, you may have observed some things about their construction. Good luck and happy designing.

Technical Tip: To share your bridge with each other follow these steps:

1. With your completed bridge on your monitor, press Print Screen.
2. Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, and select Paint.
3. Select Edit and Paste.
4. Select File and Save As - name your file and save on your desktop.
5. Go back to MentorPlace and select Response for this activity.
6. Add a comment in the text box and then click on Browse below the text box.
7. A File Upload box will open. In the Look In box go back to your Desktop.
8. Click on your bridge file and click open.
9. Now Submit your response.

Students: Ask your mentor if they currently use a programming language at work. If they say "yes", ask them what language they now use and what language they first learned. If they do use a programming language, chances are they will say they first learned BASIC.

This activity will take you through a beginning course on QBASIC. While you won't become an
expert, we hope that your curiosity will be peeked about how humans and computers interact.
Visit [QBASICNEWS] to obtain an overview of QBASIC. (There is a link at this site in the text
box to download the QBASIC program, if you do not have one on your computer. Perform a
search for qbasic.exe before you download to see if you have a copy of the program already
on your computer. (See steps listed below to perform the Search.) Once you have determined
that you already have a copy, or you had to download a copy from this site and have read the overview, visit [QBASICNEWS.LEARN] to begin the tutorial. Start with Lesson 1--Basic Basic
and give it a try! The lessons move very quickly. Don't be afraid to ask your mentor questions
about what you are learning.

If you want even more on this subject, begin Tutorial 2 by accessing [QBASIC Tutorials].

To perform a search on your computer:

1.Click on the Start Window's button.
2.Click on Find.
3.Click on Files or Folders.
4.In the Named text box type qbasic.exe.
5.Make certain that in the Look In text box it says C Drive.
6.Click on Find Now.
7.If you have a copy of this file, it will be found and shown to you
    -- you do not have to download the file from the site.
8.Close the Find window when finished.