Dr. Love began the Engineers in Training workshop by explaining to the students the roots of the word "engineer". The students learned about the many different types of engineers, such as such as civil and aeronautical engineers.
In the next activity, Dr. Love distributed a variety of Lego's and asked the students to experiment with the stability of different structures. They built structures with bases that were one unit, two units, etc., and then tried to develop a rule to explain which structures would stand and which would fall. Using the Cross-Section Applet, they tested their rules for accuracy.
Solomon finished the lesson by defining the words neutral (place where no bending occurs), tension (stretching or pulling), and compression (pressing or squeezing). He used foam blocks with a grid drawn on them to help visualize these concepts.
http://www.shodor.org/~grl/Jcodes/CrossBeam/