My Story
I think I would be a great Engineer Girl Ambassador because I am very passionate about helping more girls feel confident that they can be engineers. I can relate to younger girls who may not have learned anything yet about engineering. I am excited to teach them about it! I am a Girl Scout KidSpark STEM curriculum teacher, where I introduce Girl Scouts to structural engineering. This year I co-founded the Society of Women Engineers SWENext club at my school. I was also the team leader in our DesignLab Community Engagement Challenge. We lost when we didn’t have enough team members show up to present our project, but I didn’t give up! I redesigned our project, found a sponsor, and my first Junior Earthquake Workshop, which had students using the Engineering Design Process, was amazing!
I have always loved teaching younger girls. When I was ten years old I completed my Bronze Award in Girl Scouts. My troop hosted a small event for first-grade girls to learn about water conservation and water pollution. I had a great time teaching the girls about compost! For my Silver Award, in the 8th-grade I helped 18 younger girls earn a badge for disability awareness. I also organized an event where over 50 participants assembled birthday gifts for Meals on Wheels recipients. I have been in charge of small groups for my church’s annual summer camp. I would love to be an EG Ambassador and to see my video project help other girls.
My Project
This school year I am leading workshops in local 4th grade classrooms. My current schedule includes four workshops at three different schools, reaching over one hundred and twenty students. I plan to use the contacts I've made through these workshops to engage 4th grade girls in planning my project videos. I will invite girls from the two classrooms that are at the same school to discuss the project with me. In my original workshops, the girls learn about the engineering design process. We'll use each step of this process for the video project. I'll brainstorm with them which STEAM careers they would like to learn about. I have two books on careers in engineering that are written for kids. The girls can use these books to identify which careers interest them the most. The girls will also decide on their top questions they would like me to ask in the interviews! I will record their questions.
Next, I will invite women in STEAM, with a focus on engineers, to be interviewed by me. I am a member of the Society of Women Engineers and will ask them for help finding women to interview. I plan to ask questions about their education, their careers, what struggles they had along the way, and lastly ask them to try and answer the questions young girls have given me. My parents and friends have already agreed to videotape the interviews. I will create a video series that I plan to publish on YouTube. I know how to edit videos and I have experience in interviewing professionals. Also, the woman in charge of approving videos for my local school district promised that the videos will be approved for classroom viewing.
I plan to hold my first interviews during the summer. Since the two small groups of girls I'm planning to work with are in 4th grade, I'm hoping they will still be at the same school in the fall and we can meet again. After they watch the videos, we can apply the Engineering Design Process to improve the project. The girls and I will decide what worked, what didn't work, and what changes we would like to see for future videos. When all the interviews and videos are finished, I would like to do a final celebration with the girls at their school, and invite the women who I interviewed to attend. \\ All the videos will be viewable by students in other grades, and at other schools. The girls who watch the videos will see women role models in engineering and other STEAM fields. I am excited to make these videos! I am truly passionate about helping more girls become involved in STEAM.