Fifty drinking straws, one roll of masking tape, a pair of scissors and a ruler. That’s all the rising high-school students participating in the Engineering Volunteers for Ninth Graders program at the College of Engineering were given on Monday. The Knoxville News Sentinel attended the project which is just one of the many interactive projects the thirty-two participating students from throughout the Southeast will engage in during the week-long event. The program — titled eVOL9 for short — has hosted more than 230 students since it began in 2000.