To stay in the Engineering Academy, Dublin High students are required to participate in four field trips that teach them about the experiences of engineers. On November 29, 2023, Dublin High students in the Engineering Department had the opportunity to go on a field trip to the Computer History Museum at Stanford, an opportunity owing to Ms. Chou, who organized the trip, Ms. Halket, the field trip supervisor, and the parent volunteers who attended the trip. The field trip was intended to familiarize students with Stanford’s programs and encourage them to try computer science, as well as teach engineering fundamentals that they can use in future engineering classes.
The museum itself is an immense source of history, housing 20 exhibits ranging from the history of calculators to artificial intelligence and robotics. Upon entering, students were welcomed by the Calculator History exhibit, which offered insight into some of the first uses of calculators. Next was the Punch Cards Exhibit, where they learned about the use of punch cards in storing information in the early eighteenth century. Following were the Computer Games Exhibit and Mobile Computing Exhibit, where the students learned about how technological advancements spurred the creation of the different games and modern smartphones that we use today.
“I liked how the museum took everyone on a ride through the history of computers by using artifacts like old computers and memorabilia,” said Akshaya Koneti, a 10th grader taking engineering courses at Dublin High.
“My favorite exhibit was the Computer Games Exhibit because it had games for people to play. I enjoyed playing Pacman and Space Invaders! Along with that, I thought that the Personal Computers Exhibit was also exciting because I got to see how the keyboards and the screens of the computers kept changing over time,” said Anjali Zalani, an 11th-grade student in AP Computer Science Applications.
Around noon, the students were able to eat lunch in the museum cafe before continuing their tour of the museum. The entire museum contains thousands of artifacts and multimedia experiences, offering students extensive knowledge on the history of computing and analyzing information. Students were also able to learn about the vastly interdisciplinary applications of computing technology, from use in aerospace engineering to mechanical engineering. More familiarly, students engaged with content around the companies that introduced modern computing technology to the world, such as IBM and Apple.
After finishing at the museum, the students bussed over to the Stanford campus, arriving first at the visitors’ center and beginning the campus tour at around 1:30 p.m. The Dublin High visitors were able to tour the engineering facilities on campus, where they learned about the many opportunities afforded to engineering Stanford students as well as some of Stanford’s greatest engineering alumni: one building had even housed different Nobel prize winners on each of its floors. The tour rounded around the Memorial Church of Stanford and ended by bus.
Through the remarkable Stanford field trip, engineering students could explore the fascinating history of computer science and come home with a tremendous amount of knowledge that they’ll be able to take with them into their futures in engineering.
