Society of Women Engineers - Minnesota Section: Outreach

Here’s a closer look at the day’s event:

Brilliant Bracelets
Hosted by volunteers from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, this session exposed the girls to process improvement and efficiency strategies. The girls first began by assembling bracelets with a difficult system (supplies unorganized and no roles assigned). Then the teams made improvements to simplify the assembly process and get the job done much easier and quicker. With the defined roles and instructions, it was obvious that the assembly procedure would go much quicker and without as many mistakes! At the end, all the girls were able to take home a bracelet they had made.

Egg Mobile
The Egg Mobile is one of SWE-MN’s favorite activities mainly because it provides students will different aspects of engineering besides the technical and scientific parts. The goal of the Egg Mobile is to design a Lego car that can safely travel down a ramp carrying a very fragile passenger, Mr. Raw Egg! Girls must work in groups to design the best and safest car that not only will go far but will also pass the safety crash test. Groups must design the car with a budget and schedule in mind as well. Although we did have some car crashes and Mr. Raw Egg experienced some injuries, the girls left this session with a better understanding of how engineers must work together under strict limitations.

Silly Putty
Girls were able to combine household ingredients (Borax, water, glue, and food coloring) to turn molecules into polymers! Before getting their hands dirty, girls learned about chemical engineering and material properties. They even got to play around with the original Silly Putty before making their own. The elastic properties of the silly putty showed the girls that when certain substances are combined (in a specific order), a change occurs and a product is yielded.

Circuit Bugs
Circuit Bugs are simple little electro-mechanical insects that respond to movement, wind, and vibrations by blinking their LED (light-emitting diode) eyes. This experiment allowed the girls to bring out their creative sides. The girls first created a circuit with a coin-cell battery, copper tubing, music wire and colored LEDS. Once their circuit was made, the girls got to be creative and make a bug out of pipe cleaners. They then attached the circuit on their bugs and learned that when the circuit was closed, the eyes lit up!

Engineering Press Conference
During the Engineering Press Conference, girls were able to ask questions to real live female engineers! Questions ranged from “what do you wear to work?” to “how much money do you make?”. The girls were challenged to take time to think about what they want to do when they grow up and to make this decision wisely. The girls were also introduced with some great resources online and in the area for more opportunities to learn about science, engineering, and technology fields for women!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

SWE_MN Outreach at the Normandale STEM Equity Initiative Spring Event