 |
|
In addition to running the Junior Girl Scout Badge Workshops for fifth and sixth grade girls and the Women in Science and Engineering Essay Contest for all students in grades 5-8, SWE-NESS is involved in sponsoring two other middle school programs. One is Expanding Your Horizons, an outreach program for the American Association for University Women and Raytheon Company, and the other is FIRST LEGO ® League, a national competition held every fall.
Two members of the local section of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Raytheon Company in Portsmouth, RI and two members of SWE-NESS planned an outreach program for Portsmouth Middle School 7th grade girls on March 20, 2002 called Expanding Your Horizons. The event was an all-day event held at Raytheon, and girls were provided lunch, t-shirts and a bag full of goodies such as engineering-related brochures and games. SWE-NESS was one of the sponsors as well, providing the SWE Ford Engineering brochures and Engineering & You brochures purchased from eweek.org.
Prior to the event, the girls had been asked to write a brief biography of one of four women scientists chosen by AAUW. The essays were reviewed and one was chosen as the best for each woman subject. Upon arrival at Raytheon, the girls were randomly divided into four groups (one for each woman scientist) and given color-coded t-shirts. Volunteers related interesting facts they had learned about the four women to the whole group. The Raytheon coordinator presented an overview of the day's events and activity stations and then each group went to their scheduled station with two adult escorts. There were four activity stations set up, but each group was scheduled to go to only three due to time constraints. Each station was run by Raytheon engineers and provided a hands-on experience to the girls. The stations were: Do you Hear What I Hear? (sonar), Marco Polo (compass bearings), Buzz Me! (cable test circuit) and Bits and Bytes (computer programming). The third station was scheduled after lunch.
A brief motivational talk was presented by one of the AAUW members during lunch and was well received by the girls. During lunch and the rest of the day, the TV panels in the cafeteria and lobby showed digital photos of the girls taken during the morning workshops. After the last session, the girls gathered together again and evaluation forms from AAUW were given out to be completed, and then collected before they returned to school.
Expanding Your Horizons will be held on March 27, 2003 with the target middle school this year being in the Bristol-Warren school system.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) strives to inspire interest in science and engineering among today's youth. FIRST's mission is to encourage children of all ages to learn more about mathematics, sciences, engineering and technology through hands-on programs and partnership with leaders in industry. The FLL program represents a partnership between the LEGO ® Company and FIRST. It extends the concept of celebrating science and technology to 9 to 14 year old children using a real-world context and hands-on experimentation. In 2001, SWE-NESS partnered with the Mystic (CT) Middle School to help sponsor their seven FLL teams. The teams consisted of six or seven sixth and seventh graders and an engineer coach/mentor. The School's two science teachers, as well as some parents, also acted as advisors for all the teams. SWE-NESS's monetary support funded supplemental robot kits for five of the teams as well as a practice mat.
In addition to providing funding support, SWE-NESS provided a coach/mentor, Section Representative Michele Fitzpatrick, for an all-girl team self-named the Arctic Angels (a name which the girls insist can be deceiving). The teams face an annual challenge emulating a real world event or situation and must research, plan, build, program and test their robot (using LEGO MINDSTORMS ® technology); the exercise focuses on team building, creative problem solving and analytical thinking. Robots must be capable of accomplishing the challenge in three minutes of competition. Past challenges have proposed problems with the International Space Station and a volcanic eruption. The 2001 challenge was "Arctic Impact," with the mission to rescue and evacuate a scientific expedition to the Arctic studying global climate changes. Each team had nine challenges to choose from - such as transporting fuel barrels and recovering scarce medical supplies - which varied in difficulty and point value. To further the efforts of the expedition (as well as enhance the learning experience for the students), Arctic Impact teams used their expertise to analyze climate data and theorize whether the cause of global climate changes are directly related to human interference or a natural warming cycle.
The Connecticut state competition was held in December, when 52 teams (including all seven from Mystic) completed the challenge at Harrison J. Kaiser Gymnasium at Central Connecticut State University (another 35 teams were turned away for lack of space). Teams came from throughout Connecticut and New England, from home schools, traditional classrooms, scouting groups and even neighborhoods. In Connecticut, the event is coordinated by a cross-section of science and education organizations, including the School of Technology at Central, the State Department of Education's technology education office and the Science Center of Connecticut.
The 2002 challenge is "City Sights", with the mission to "explore the obstacles, restrictions and challenges that urban planners face every day in order to provide basic services such as housing, clean water, safe environment, educational and medical assistance, sustainable energy, mass transportation and communication venues to the inhabitants of the city. Factors like population, finite land and water resources, and unique geographical situations, are just a few of the variables to consider as effective solutions are explored.
| Please contact our Webmaster | Contents Copyright 2000-2003 | This page |
 |
 |
 |
| with questions or comments | SWE-NESS | Validated |