Career success in today's world involves grit and determination, as in past decades, but many modern careers require education and skill achievements never before necessary. In an effort to expose Yuma's young people to careers in the technical fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, eight busloads of local high school, college and elementary school students made a five hour visit to U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in mid-April.
A detailed proving ground tour took them to multiple work places to meet with technical workers in a variety of skill fields, from engineers and scientists to electricians and meteorologists. Students were able to see and touch a wide variety of things, from releasing weather balloons and sitting at the controls of helicopters, to examining inert models of rockets and viewing video taken with multi-million dollar high speed cameras. They witnessed the scientific set-up of an Army mortar test project, from positioning data gathering equipment to preparing the weapon system (though no firing took place.)
"I love interacting with the community," said YPG Meteorologist Nicholas McColl as he supervised a group of students launching a weather balloon. "The kids are enjoying this, for we've focused on providing them hands-on opportunities."
About 4000 weather balloons are launched each year at the proving ground, making it one of the top weather balloon launch sites in the world. Proving ground personnel recently launched the huge total of 225 balloons in a single week. By comparison, the National Weather Service in Phoenix launches about 50 balloons per month.
McColl firmly believes in the value of working with young people, for the effort could directly impact someone's future. "By planting the seeds now, we're actually helping ourselves down the road. Today's activities might be the trigger that causes someone to formally enter the field of science, and maybe even work at Yuma Proving Ground."
A teacher from Yuma's Cibola High School, Steven Fritz, said the outstanding value of the event was the opportunity it gave students to view engineers at work in a wide variety of fields. "Being here to see the day-to-day job of an engineer is fantastic," he said. "From A to Z, it felt like we saw it."
As Cibola High School student Austin Change shaded his eyes and watched a just-launched weather balloon climb into the sky, he said, "I never considered meteorology as a career possibility before, but it's interesting. Many doors are now open and seeing all of this has been invaluable."
The national defense mission of Yuma Proving Ground is to test weapon systems and munitions to ensure that they work reliably, without fail, all the time. The Army's busiest test organization, YPG testers apply the scientific method each day of the year when conducting this workload, whether it be testing the reliability of an M1 Abrams main battle tank on a rugged road course, the reconnaissance capabilities of the newest unmanned aircraft or the development of new artillery projectiles more accurate than anything before. Between 60 and 100 test projects take place each day at the proving ground.
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