Mentors and mentees in the SMILES (Southcoast Mentoring Initiative for Learning, Education and Service) mentoring program (a program of People, Incorporated) at the Matthew J. Kuss Middle School teamed up on April 4, 2011 to test their engineering skills. Given only some paper cups, soda straws, paper, labels and a plastic bag with which to work, teams had to devise a way to keep a raw egg from breaking when dropped from a six-foot height. Each team worked independently and came up with some novel designs, including one that used the plastic bag as a parachute (it worked!). The exercise tested both student and adult problem-solving skills and taught the value of teamwork in accomplishing a goal. Weekly SMILES mentoring sessions are scheduled throughout the year to offer mentors and mentees the chance to get to know each other better and to form strong bonds designed to keep mentees invested in their schools. Click here for pictures of the mentors meeting their mentees earlier in the year. Click here for pictures from last year's SMILES program at Kuss. For more information about the program or to volunteer to serve as a mentor in other programs, call 508-837-6902 or email Katje Fuson at kfuson@smilesmentoring.org

(Top row, left) Mentees Tori and Vanessa work with mentors Jenny DiBlasi and Catarina Bauer to construct a device that will keep their egg from breaking when it's dropped. (Top row, center) SMILES Ambassador of Mentoring Elizett Pires drops the first device consisting of two paper cups taped together. (Top row, right) Mentor Paul Burke opens the device as his mentee, Michael, looks on, only to find that the egg had cracked. (Middle row, left) Mentee Christian waits excitedly along with mentor Kristen Gunderson, sitting next to her mentee, Joshua, and Christian's mentor, Nick Christ and UMass-Dartmouth student Lee Ann Shaw. (Middle row, center) Tori watches as Jenny opens their device to find the egg intact! (Middle row, right) Elizett holds another device put together by Christian and Joshua (Bottom row, left center) Christian and Joshua take their device apart and Elizett holds up their intact egg.