The week consisted of a 4 day summer camp in which we worked with 80 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th grade students. The camp was 4 hours each day, and consisted of 2 engineering based modules each day. Each module focused on a variety of lessons in engineering, including teamwork, the design-build-test process, renewable energy, ethics in engineering, and aerodynamics.

If you want to check out more of the work we did, you can visit our blog- http://sweoverseas2013.blogspot.com/

We are so thankful that we had this amazing opportunity and appreciated all of the support from SWE we’ve received all year!

- Post written by the University of Michigan SWE section.

Figure 1: Introduce a Girl to Engineering. Jamie (5 years) and Lindsay (3 years) show off their certificates for completing activities at the St. Ambrose University Introduce a Girl to Engineering Event. Girls between the ages of 3 and 13 participated in 8 different activities focused on Engineering and Science, earning prizes for each activity.

There’s a lot of research on why girls study certain fields, key factors being confidence, motivation, and interest. In general, girls lack confidence in math and science starting at an early age. This isn’t because they perform poorly in comparison to boys; in fact in many cases, girls outperform boys in math and science. The problem is their self-perception. Girls feel they are only good at a subject in which they easily get straight A’s, whereas a boy has lower expectations of what is “good.” It’s important to constantly encourage and support girls in math and science, therefore immediately rewarding good work is part of establishing a firm foundation.

Girls also are motivated by and interested in different things. It’s important to keep this in mind when designing STEM activities so that girls can see how their interests fit into the field. For example, girls and other under-represented populations are highly motivated by careers and activities that contribute to society, help improve someone’s life, or better the world. They are much less motivated by competition and money.

The week of February 17-23 was National Engineer’s Week, and February 21 kicked off the national campaign challenging groups, individuals, and organizations to Introduce a Girl to Engineering. At St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, we hosted an event targeted at pre-school through 7^th graders and had an astonishing turnout of 252 girls from 63 different schools. The event was an “open house” style and completely free.  Similar to a STEM carnival, it was organized with eight different booths of interesting, hands-on engineering and science activities. Girls were able to visit each booth at their own pace to complete the activities with the help of volunteers.

Figure 2: Introduce a Girl to Engineering. Preschooler, Amy (4 years) learns how wind turbines provide electricity to our homes. At this booth, girls got to experiment with different gear ratios to see the different voltages produced by wind power. Other booths from the event included Glue Goo, Soap-powered boats, Lip Gloss, Simple Machines, Smooth Operator, Slinky Science, and Paper Columns. More than 250 girls attended from 63 different schools.

The evening was very successful, and everyone (students and parents!) left with smiles and excitement from their night of exploring engineering and science. Much of this success was because the entire event was designed around girls. The activities were interesting to them (making lip gloss, designing surgical instruments) or geared toward their intrinsically helpful nature (when showing how soap can power a cardboard boat, the question was posed about how this could lead to “greener” power). In addition, girls were awarded stickers at each activity, a participation certificate, and prizes for completing activities. And to top it all off, there were no boys allowed! This really let the girls explore science and engineering without any pressure or competition.

Getting young women interested in engineering and science at an early age is essential to guiding them into STEM careers. Take on the challenge—show the FUN and INTERESTING side of engineering to as many girls as you can!

By Jodi Prosise, PhD
Assistant Professor of Engineering
St. Ambrose University
Davenport, IA

Collegiate Director’s Letter

Here is a brief excerpt from the article:

“All collegiate sections are different, and some even have graduate student committees or groups as a part of their SWE section. Others may have a smaller number of graduate student members that participate within the section – this has been my experience so far. Either way, don’t forget about graduate students! We bring a unique perspective to collegiate SWE sections, and are a crucial piece of the Society as a whole.”

Conference Eye Witness

Floor Hockey photo and caption

Grand Prix Article

Homecoming Float

Leadership for Dummies

TEAMS Article

The deadline for FY14 SWEFL (SWE Future Leaders) Program Nominations has been extended to May 24, 2013.  This is due to the change of date for the Collegiate Leadership Forum (CLF).  The CLF will now be held the Saturday of WE13 October 26, 2013.

In order to better serve more future leaders, moving the event date will allow more SWEFLs to be selected, as well as give them the opportunity to attend the conference together and experience the ‘spirit of SWE’ firsthand. SWE is building on the past success of CLF by expanding the program.  This will allow us to increase the number of SWEFLs and expand the audience of the CLF program.

Please take this opportunity to nominate outstanding collegiate members.  Nominees should have no less than two years left of a current degree program (i.e. Freshmen and Sophomores for undergraduates or 1st/2nd year graduate students going for a doctorate) and shall have a minimum GPA of 3.0/4.0.  Candidates for SWEFL nominations should be active collegiate members of the Society and have exhibited strong leadership potential and interest in extended involvement in the Society beyond the collegiate experience.  Nominees who have been selected as SWEFLs for a previous FY or have attended the Collegiate Leadership Forum (CLF) as another function are precluded from being nominated.  SWEFL candidates are chosen based on their nominations and availability to attend the CLF this Fall at WE13 in Baltimore, MD, October 26, 2013. Attending CLF is a valuable opportunity for up and coming SWE collegiate leaders to meet other influential members of our Society and be exposed to SWE beyond the section level.

Nominators should have an established relationship with the nominee that permits detailed insight into the nominee’s leadership potential and interest in the society.  The nominator cannot be the nominee herself, as one of the leadership metrics used for establishing future leadership is to establish networks and relationships.  Nominators are not required to be members of SWE, but should have some knowledge of the Society to understand the value of the program and the Society goals.  Examples of past nominators include professors, counselors, and SWE section presidents.

The nomination form asks for your contact information and the SWEFL nominee’s contact information. Additionally, the following questions are part of the nomination:

1. Current involvement in university section and/or other Society activities
2. Potential future involvement in university section and/or other Society activities
3. Activities and responsibilities in other organizations that show positive leadership skills and abilities
4. Traits and capabilities of the nominee that indicate her leadership potential
5. How the nominee would benefit from participating in the SWEFL program
6. How others would benefit from the nominee participating in the SWEFL program

The nominee will receive a request for follow up information after the nomination form is complete and submitted. I look forward to receiving your nominations.

All of the nominations already received will be considered for a SWEFL appointment.  There is no need to resubmit.  However, if you have submitted and you are not able to attend WE13, please let the selection committee know.

Wendy Landweher
FY13 Deputy Director of Regions

• Stay involved.  Renew your SWE membership.  If you are still a collegiate student for at least a little longer, SWE provides you the opportunity to grow both as an individual and professionally.  If you are a graduating collegiate, becoming a professional member will allow you to maintain your network of ambitious female (and male) engineers and other professionals beyond those at the company you will soon be employed by.  Consider being a leader within your current, or new section.
  • REMINDER: Even if you have a C2C (Collegiate to Career) membership you still must renew each year for a cost of $0.
• Reflect. Take the time to remember all of the things you have accomplished over the past year and all of the things you are working to improve.  Write them down.  Whether it is updating your resume or keeping a scrapbook, you have accomplished things personally, academically, and professionally over the past year.  Keep track.
• Keep in touch.  LinkedIn and Facebook are fantastic ways to keep up with those people that you have grown to know, but will be seeing less of as you transition out of this academic year.
• Be flexible and optimistic.  Things might not be what you expected.  If you are transitioning into a leadership position within your section, or into your first job of your career, there are going to be some unexpected turns.  Roll with it.

Those are just a few pieces of advice I have picked up from others over the past few months.  No matter what stage you are currently in, I personally think commencement speeches and convocation speeches both have things to offer.  Here are links to a few speeches at convocation and commencement ceremonies.

Be a geek and a nerd: Jim Kakalios at UMN Convocation 2009

UMN CSE Commencement Speech 2013: Steve Blank

Ellen DeGeneres at Tulane’s 2006 Commencement

These science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students are our future scientists, astronauts, engineers, physicists, and entrepreneurs.  Visit the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and marvel as the Lunabots mine “moon dirt” in a race against the clock.

Follow Lunabotics on the web – www.nasa.gov/lunabotics, on Facebook – www.facebook.com/Lunabotics, and on Twitter – https://twitter.com/NASALunabotics. For information about the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and ticket prices, please visit www.kennedyspacecenter.com/index.asp.  Check out the Lunabotics Flyer 2013.

Join us in May and meet our future workforce.  Visit America’s spaceport where history is made!

At E-Council meeting, a representative from each clubs announces current projects they are working on, and other pertinent news. They can also request help on various projects, such as man power, ideas, or financial assistance. E-Council itself might decide to take on a project as its own, if it is felt to be a more general project between clubs and would benefit from a united front from all the engineering clubs.

Since our SWE group is relatively small, we use E-Council to help on various projects we have maintained over the years. During E-Week, SWE has gone around speaking to K-12 classrooms about various opportunities in engineering and answering what questions they might have. Our community has appreciated this to the point that we go to over 30 classrooms each year during E-Week. Due to such a large number of classrooms, E-Council provides us with volunteers so that we are able to go to all classrooms that request us. SWE will organize the entire event, schedule the visits, and come up with the presentations to keep the kids interacted and engaged in the presentations.

For younger kids, we create an activity to visually show the kids what engineers do and to engage them in our presentation. We choose a simple, low-cost project because of the sheer number of kids we talk to at one time and in total. This year we helped them make pin wheels and talked about what went into designing them and why they were made a certain way.

For the high school students, we focus more on the specific thing that they could do as an engineer and what a degree in engineering will give them. We present a general overview of the engineering disciplines, talk about our personal experiences in the engineering field, and end with a question session.

We also use E-Council to gather ideas, gain insight on good projects to do for our own outreach events, and to support team work. We are very proud of all we have accomplished as such a small section at UND. E-Council has been a great resource to us as a club and has helped us to reach the heights we have.

This post was written by the University of North Dakota SWE Section.  If you have any questions about these events or their section please email: Traci at traci.bentrup@my.und.edu

This post was written by the Milwaukee School of Engineering SWE Section.  If you have any questions about these events or their section please email: Inga at bentleyi@msoe.edu

]]> http://regionh.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/milwaukee-school-of-engineering-section/feed/ 0 RegionH IMG_0853 Award http://regionh.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/st-cloud-state-university-scsu-section/ http://regionh.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/st-cloud-state-university-scsu-section/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:35:35 +0000 regionh http://regionh.wordpress.com/?p=2594 ]]> Horizons Conference is an outreach one-day event hosted by SWE (SCSU) members, faculty and student volunteers, where we invite junior high school girls to come to our campus and enjoy the science and engineering workshops and group projects that we have arranged for them. The goal of the conference is to motive the girls’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).  All the girls who attend the conference get a free T-shirt, free lunch, and many other gifts. We have received many positive feedbacks from both the girls and their parents during the last several years that this event has been really helpful for them/their daughter to motivate the girls’ interest in science and engineering.

This post was written by the St. Cloud State University SWE Section.  If you have any questions about these events or their section please email: LuLu at lulu.wang1990@gmail.com