Three hundred twenty-seven pumpkins fell from West Virginia University’s 11-story Engineering Sciences Building on Oct. 24 during the 27th annual Pumpkin Drop.

After the pumpkins fell, one group of students was there to put the skills they learned in the classroom to the test during the cleanup efforts.

Every year the Pumpkin Drop, which is sponsored by the WVU chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, invites student teams from across West Virginia and nearby states to design and build an enclosure or apparatus that will protect a pumpkin when it is launched from the roof. Pumpkins were packaged in cardboard, marshmallows, blankets, pillows and other materials to prevent them from splattering on the ground below.

After the event, members of the WVU chapter of Tau Beta Pi sorted through and donated 16 trash bags of bedding and clothes to Goodwill, delivered two dump trucks of compostable material to the WVU Farm, filled an entire compacting recycling truck with cardboard and disposed of several dump trucks full of garbage.

Tau Beta Pi is the national engineering honor society. The chapter at WVU was founded in 1922.

“This was our first year doing the Pumpkin Drop cleanup and we will be continuing to do this in future years,” said Matthew McCabe, a senior mechanical engineering student from Martinsburg, and president of the chapter. “It was an opportunity we were happy to run with.”

Melissa Morris, teaching assistant professor and academic adviser in the Freshman Engineering Program, is the chief adviser of the Tau Beta Pi Chapter at WVU. Morris and McCabe attended the organization’s national convention in Spokane, Washington in October. The two said they came back energized and excited to get more involved on campus.

“Tau Beta Pi is really excited to become more involved with the Statler College and to continue to increase its membership,” she said.

To become a member of the honor society, engineering students must be in the top eighth of their class as juniors and top fifth of their class as seniors. They must also display excellent character.

Chris Nestor, a senior mechanical and aerospace engineering student and chapter treasurer, said this project was a good exercise in character building.

“Projects like this are not only important to our members, but continue to differentiate Tau Beta Pi from other honoraries,” he said. “Engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity. That is why these projects are not only chosen for enjoyable social interaction, but also help young engineers continue their growth.”

The Pumpkin Drop is a great exercise in character and citizenship as the members of the WVU chapter were able to help a number of people in their service project.

“The Pumpkin Drop cleanup makes our members aware of the responsibility they have as engineers to design for sustainability,” Morris said. “Even I was shocked how much clean, salvageable stuff we had at the end of the day.

“This is a great way for us to give back to the College, the University and the community,” she said.

According to Nestor, the day was also an enhancement of the classroom experience for the group of students.

“I previously took an engineering sustainability class where I learned a lot. However, many of the applications were not witnessed hands-on,” the Fairmont native said. “By recycling at the Pumpkin Drop, sustainability was witnessed at its foundation and showed how much would have just been wasted in just one day had it not been for us sorting and recycling the cardboard, paper and biodegradables pushed off that roof.”

McCabe said getting involved with the Pumpkin Drop was a fun way to put what he learned in the classroom to the test.

“My favorite part is seeing how all the students developed their own problem-solving strategies,” said McCabe. “I think that as we grow older, we like to complicate the simplest things. The Pumpkin Drop is always a reminder that sometimes problems can be solved in very simple ways.”

-WVU-

wbk/11/05/14

CONTACT: Mary C. Dillon, Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
304.293.4086; Mary.Dillon@mail.wvu.edu

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