My Story
In third grade my Dad introduced me to the NASA website and since then I have become obsessed with STEM and engineering. I began taking the Project Lead The Way (PLTW) and CAD classes offered at my middle school in 7th grade and I fell in love with them. When I began high school, I continued taking PLTW classes, advanced science and math classes, and to became more immersed in the world of engineering.
For the past two years I have worked as a soccer coach for players six- to twelve-years-old. I also volunteered as a virtual tutor this past summer, teaching a third grader about Math, Science, and English.
My Project
Once a month, any student in grades 3-5 at Walt Whitman Elementary school is welcome to attend a lunchtime club that will aim to introduce young girls to engineering. I plan to introduce a new discipline of engineering to the club every month with a short presentation and then introduce the design challenge of the day. The students would be given a certain amount of material and would have to work together to meet the challenge.
One major pillar of this club is a community based project that the students will design and implement with the help of me and the other teachers that will aid in the running of this club. Throughout the year, the students will brainstorm and design a project that they think will improve their community, adding to their design plan each week. At the end of the year we will have a whole lunch session dedicated to the project and then have an optional after school session where we will finish their project up.
I plan to start a google classroom with important dates, information, my weekly presentations, and photos of their projects.