Outreach - Region D Best Practices

Engineering Badge Day (D070, University of Tennessee at Knoxville): Our section of SWE hosted a Girl Scout/SWE Engineering Badge Day to encourage younger girls to explore the world of engineering.  The badge day was open to 50 Junior Girl Scouts.  The event was held at a local community center.  The day opened up with some speakers who were women in engineering, as well as some of the SWE members.  The girls were then divided into teams and went to different stations of activities.  The first station was geared towards civil engineering.  The girls built towers out of newspaper and rocks, and then tested them.  They then discussed what ideas worked and what ideas didn't work.  The next activity was geared towards chemical engineering and was an exploration of polymers.  The girls made different polymers based from glue and borax, and explored what happened when different things were mixed with them, such as salt or baking powder.  The girls then explored electrical engineering by building basic circuits.  They also got to look at a real traffic light to see how it worked.  Finally, the girls got to participate in a reverse engineering activity, where they got to disassemble basic appliances (toasters, clocks, hairdryers, etc.) and figure out how they worked.  The day was broken up with a snack.  The girls got to practice math and learn about healthy snacking by making their own 100 calorie snack.  The girls earned both the Junior badge "Making it Matter" and the SWE Girl Scout Engineering Event patch, as well as a t-shirt.  Overall, the day was a success.  

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (D063, University of Miami): Our best, and most longstanding event is called “OutreachExperience: Introduce a girl to Engineering Day.” During this event, we invite 75-150 high school girls from the surrounding Miami area for an event that last from 8AM-2PM. The day starts with breakfast and either a professional women speaker, or a panel of speakers where the girls are able to ask questions. Then, we split the girls up into two groups. The first group is split further into small groups and is led by one of our SWE  member on tours of the various labs that we have on campus. The second group participates in an engineering related challenge. Then they switch. At the end of the day we have lunch and we have the Dean of the college speak to them, as well as our director of recruitment. We send the off with brochures and magazines about women in engineering and a custom made T-shirt or tote bag.