My Story
As part of an all-girls robotics team, I am passionate about including girls in engineering. Providing adequate opportunities are the first steps towards closing the gender gap in engineering.
As one of the older girls in my robotics team, I have assisted and mentored girls throughout the season, helping to inform them all about parts, tools, and familiarizing them with programming. My outreach includes events where girls with minimal knowledge built robots using kits and program them in order to compete in challenges. I guided them along the way and taught them about the process. These events allow me to connect with girls, see their interest grow, and encourage further participation by sharing my experiences in robotics.
My Project
My program will be taught through slideshow presentations on Zoom. Mechanical, design, and programming sections will each be covered separately. For the mechanical and design sections, I will have a basic robot design (clawbot) with me to showcase the parts and their functions in practice. The design section will also explain the Engineering Design Process and provide an example of documenting the process. The programming section will include explanations of block programming and basic programming concepts. There will be additional coding activities to help girls learn. In order to keep girls engaged, there will be videos and interactive games as well as Kahoot and Jeopardy games. This ensures they will actively recall the information and stay focused. Since there may be new concepts, the material will include connections to real life. For instance, when explaining different types of lifts on a robot, the presentations will show examples of these lifts in our everyday life. There will also be outside resources, such as online robot simulators, so girls can explore after the program and be further encouraged to pursue robotics or engineering.