My Story
My passion from engineering stemmed from my curiosity and enthusiasm towards solving mathematical, real-life problems. I have always been drawn to what I did not know, from subtraction to fractions and ultimately to the wonders of the world that are still being deciphered. In elementary school, I began engineering models with a pair of scissors, sheets of paper, and tape. Looking back, it would have been amazing if I had been able to attend engineering courses and use resources that I could not find in my home. From mentoring Junior Solar Sprints teams; to working in a FIRST robotics team; to taking courses on computer science, CAD, and circuitry at my school; I have previously worked with middle school students and applied engineering techniques.
My Project
My project is an after-school program consisting of multiple events at my local library. Each session will start off with a guest speaker (a woman working in STEM) or an interactive engineering lesson through a powerpoint or on an application like TinkerCAD. Lessons will demonstrate coding on Arduino’s IDE, learning functions of electrical components, and drawing 3D models. Girls will split into teams share their ideas then work on their hands-on project. At the end of each session, the girls will be encouraged to provide feedback on their progress and discuss any problems they have encountered.
By the end of the program, the girls would have built the following: 4 bit adder/calculator, Arduino alarm clock, and a line-following robot. These projects will be accompanied by smaller labs to learn how certain components work and their purposes. Smaller labs are intended to be finished in one to two sessions, while major projects will be done in a span of two to four sessions.
Participants will also be able to choose a final project to implement at the end of the program, which is open to a lot of flexibility and creativity for the girls.