SWE’s 6th Annual Girls’
Engineering Exploration (GEE) was a great success. We had 94 4th – 6th
grade girls from Detroit Public Schools and surrounding counties attend the
event, along with 29 Parents and Teachers, 23 Mentors and 19 Flex
Volunteers. The day-long event was made
possible by our gold sponsor Toyota, who has sponsored us for four years
straight, and our silver sponsor DTE Energy who has sponsored us for two years. Our theme this year, to align with
Engineering Week, was “Awesome Female Engineers”.
The event took place, after four months of planning, at
Wayne State’s Student Center on Saturday, March 2. The planning committee arrived at
7:00AM to unload materials and prepare the student center for volunteers,
mentors and students. By 8:30, the
mentors and volunteers had arrived to finish setting up and to become familiar
with the activities taking place that day.
At 9:30, the students, parents and teachers began to arrive to the
event. They were met by an excellent
registration process where, after their pre-registered name was found on our
roster, they were given a name tag and a GEE T-shirt. Registration was led by Tessa Baughman, who
has made the registration process run smoothly for the past 3 years. Our increase in attendees this year was made
possible by the strong dedication of Jessica Green, our student/teacher liaison,
who created an electronic registration form.
Four different colors of t-shirts were given out to designate the 4
rotation groups. Each color group
consisted of 5 to 6 groups consisting of 4 girls each, with a mentor in charge
of leading their group of 4 girls throughout the events of the day. Each mentor, typically a female engineer, was
able to answer any questions the girls had throughout the day, and to give a
personal example of how females can become successful engineers.
Once all the girls had arrived, Jessica Engwis, who co-led
the event with Vivette El Fawal, gave a brief welcome speech. They introduced Laurie Ramsey, who familiarized the girls with the main disciplines
of engineering, including: Mechanical, Electrical, Civil and Environmental. The girls were then broken up into their groups to rotate through the four Engineering Activities: Elevator, Night
and Day, Catch A Thief and Egg Drop. The
Elevator Activity, run by Nicole Frei, illustrated the roles that pulleys play
in reducing the force needed to raise an elevator. The girls were given a peg
board, an elevator with a Lego man, and various bobbins, strings and fishing
weights which they arranged in different configurations on the board. Once a configuration was created, the girls
tested the elevator by measuring the force required to move it. The Night and Day Activity, run by Alexis
Manley, allowed the girls to create a model of the earth spinning on its axis
in order to observe the cause and effect relationship that its rotation has on
our days, nights, years and lives. Catch
a Thief, run by Elizabeth Ankerson, gave the girls the opportunity to be
detectives using chromatography to analyze evidence from a “crime”. The crime was solved by comparing the
pigments in black ink pens to determine which thief’s pen matched the ransom note.
The Egg Drop Activity, run by Cassondra
Whitlow, illustrated aerospace and mechanical engineering. The girls worked in their groups to design
and create a protective pod for their astronaut egg to ride safely, and
hopefully survive, a 7 foot fall.
Night and Day Activity
Egg
Drop Activity
In parallel with the girls’ activities, the parents and
teachers attended a session of their own.
Led by Frenae Smith and Dionne Gisstennar, the parents and teachers
enjoyed discussions on choosing engineering as a career and summer programs
which their students can enroll in. A
Professional Women Engineering Panel was also provided, along with a hands-on
engineering activity to show the parents and teachers a bit of what the girls’
GEE day was like. Reaching out to parents
and teachers is a great part of GEE because we feel that we are able to touch
more students if the parents and teachers are more informed about the field of
engineering.
The event concluded with a science show from Steve Belliveau
called “Getting Excited About Science” where he presented to the girls, in his
high-energy style, the science behind pulleys, properties of liquids and
solids, and centripetal force.
Steve’s “Getting
Excited About Science” Show
The girls and volunteers were in high spirits the entire day
and enjoyed the overall event. In a
student survey, the girls expressed their excitement with comments such as: “I
learned that I want to be a chemical engineer.”
“I learned that engineers do a lot to help our country and I thank you for
that.” “Yes. You really inspired me thanks so
much. I would be an engineer.”
Our volunteer survey also received positive feedback with responses such
as: “It was great to see so many people so excited about this event and be so
passionate about their fields and helping girls seek STEM careers.” “The event was well organized and the girls
seemed to really enjoy it.” “It exceled
in the activities offered to the girls. I think they had a lot of hands on
activities where they were able to learn and apply their knowledge.”
Along with the names of planning committee members
aforementioned in this article, the event was also made possible by Abir Bazzi
- T-shirt Organizer, Anne Dancey – Science Show Coordinator, Kara Martini –
Volunteer Coordinator, Rashmi Bhatt – Mentor Coordinator, Earnee Gillings –
Backpack and Give-a-ways Coordinator, and Elizabeth Barrios – Food
Coordinator. Thanks to the amazing
planning committee, flex volunteers and mentors, GEE was successful once again
and looking
forward to our 7th year in 2014.
Planning Committee
(back to front, left to right): Jessica Green, Liz Ankerson, Tessa Baughman,
Nicole Frei, Abir Bazzi, Laurie Ramsey, Alexis Manley, Rashmi Bhatt, Jessica
Engwis, Vivette El Fawal
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