VIERA, Fla. — It’s National Engineers Week, and Viera Elementary School fourth grader Eva Rodriguez is one of a hundred students taking the Boeing Future U Design Challenge.

“It’s fun that you get to work together to solve problems instead of just doing it by yourself,” Rodriguez said.

The goal of the hands-on exercise is to build a “Safe Stopping Robot,” made out of common materials like paperclips, wires, glue and batteries.

It’s a chance for the students to build problem-solving skills, creativity and persistence — all the marks of a real world engineer.

“It’s not giving them the answers, it’s guiding them throughout the process, is really it, ‘Try this, what about this,’ and once they figure it out, it just clicks,” said Boeing Design Engineering Senior Manager Alfredo Rodriguez, who is also Eva’s father.

Boeing representatives hope this will inspire the kids to go into STEM careers.

E-Week was founded in 1951 and works to create a well-educated, future engineering workforce with teaching moments like this one.