February is Outreach Month!

Even though the SWE-NESS year starts in July and we have our first two outreach programs in November, February is the main month for our outreach programs, extending to the first part of March. You might think that mid-winter is not the time to do outreach programs, but it all connects with National Engineers Week (aka E-Week). E-Week is in February, usually occurring around the true birthday (Feb. 22) of George Washington because he was the first U.S. engineer. SWE-NESS has had an outreach program to publicize E-Week since 1998, and has held it at the Providence Children’s Museum, capturing not only adult audiences, but prospective future engineers (children) as well.

To further promote engineering and E-Week, SWE-NESS established a library outreach program in 2006, trying to connect educators to engineering through school libraries - and municipal libraries as well. Through SWE volunteers, we set up engineering and science book displays in school and public libraries, giving them posters or tablecards promoting E-Week and E-Week bookmarks with engineering activities. Libraries that have participated in the past are mailed the E-Week bookmarks and tablecards if no volunteer is available to personally set up the display. This year is no exception; we have around 60 libraries and volunteers participating in this outreach! The displays are not set up just for the one week; they are set up by the first week of February so we can promote engineering and E-Week for the entire month. This outreach, taking about thirty minutes to set up a display, has been very successful. School librarians have said they have seen students interested in the books, and look forward to getting the display materials every year.

Our successful Girl Scout engineering badge workshops are run twice a year in RI; the second time is the beginning of February, when the RWU collegiates get back to school. Starting the GS workshops on science badges in 1994, we have now concentrated on the two engineering badges only: SWE and Making It Matter. Both highlight various engineering disciplines through hands-on activities which the girls have fun doing. The one we’re doing this year is the SWE badge, at RWU on Saturday, February 6. Details are in the Featured Events section of the newsletter.

The E-Week event we run at the Children’s Museum is called Be an Engineer, and includes hands-on activities that introduce five different engineering disciplines to children. In addition to these activities, there are two presentation boards on tables in the center of the room, with summaries of engineering disciplines that visiting adults and older children can read while waiting for the younger ones. In front of the display boards, visitors can pick up and look at library books on engineering and engineers. There is a table by the entrance/exit where the SWE-NESS display board resides, as well as information on SWE and membership packets. Upon leaving the room, children are given an E-Week bookmark, sticker and SWE-Detroit engineering coloring book. The museum really looks forward to hosting this event every year, and gets the leftover stickers and bookmarks. This year this event is on the last Saturday of E-Week, February 20. If you are interested in helping out, details are in the Featured Events section.

There are three more outreach events which occur after February. The Girl Scout Senior Leadership Conference is held the first weekend in March at Salve Regina University (during their vacation), hosted by the GS of RI Council. SWE-NESS runs three of the four Science & Technology sessions on Saturday; the fourth is run by the SWE-URI collegiate section. The high school girls participating in our sessions not only learn about the topics, they learn about the engineering disciplines that pertain to the topic as well. Girls also receive brochures about SWE scholarships, the SWE engineering brochure and the SWE GS event patch.

There are two more GS workshops in April which SWE-NESS runs for the Connecticut Council. One is an overnight for older girls, where they work on activities from the SWE Interest Project Award, as well as plan the next day’s SWE Try-It workshop for the Brownies.

The bottom line is there are a lot of outreach programs happening soon in which everyone can take part!

Collegiate Rap

SWE-RWU is looking forward to running the various stations of the Girl Scout badge workshop on February 6.

SWE-RWU sent six students along with their SWE Faculty Advisor Janet Baldwin to the 2009 National Conference in Long Beach, CA. SWE-RWU Officer Jessica Pica relays her experience in the paragraphs below.

This year at the WE09 Conference, I learned so much about the Society of Women Engineers. Through the Region F meeting, I got to interact with other schools and professionals in our region. This was a great experience, because we exchanged fundraising and event ideas which will help my SWE section. It is hard to get a lot of membership involvement when the section is so small, but from networking with other small sections, I learned ways to get members involved and have them stay involved.

The Career Fair was also a great experience; it helped develop my interview skills and helped me understand what I want to do when I graduate from college.

Overall, the WE09 Conference was an amazing experience that helped me and my SWE collegiate section develop in many ways.