To that question, a few students immediately describe how they started building things — model airplanes, Lego constructions, primitive robots and computers, etc. — when they were as young as three years old. One boy announced that he wired his family home with a sound system when he was twelve. A Dakota farm girl told me how her big brother taught her to build a fort, including gathering sticks from a near-by orchard, then weaving them into walls and a roof, building a door and even a skylight. These students revealed an enthusiasm for becoming an engineer based on several first-hand engineer-like experiences from their youth.