As the year is coming to a close the girls spent their second to last Girlstart meeting talking and writing about their future! 

 

The club leaders began by asking the girls what they wanted to accomplish the next school year, then in middle school, high school, college and finally what their dream job is. For middle school and high school the girls’ goals ranged from joining band to playing soccer and getting good grades. When it came to dream jobs many wanted to be veterinarians, surgeons and teachers. While others said singers, engineers, scientists and one girl even said she wanted to become so smart she would be famous.

 

 

 

While talking about college, the girls were given a small cardboard box and paper to write a letter to their future selves that contained their goals. Some wrote a short sentence and drew a picture while others filled up the whole page. As the girls wrote more and more they began to open up and proudly proclaim their dreams. In the end, each girls’ personality shined through in the way they decorated their box and in their unique ambitious dreams.

 

 

Plastic Pollution in the Ocean

 

This week, To-Go students practiced important skills used by Marine Engineers! Girls identified properties of different plastics, then applied this knowledge to a marine animal rescue device!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After watching a video about plastic pollution in our oceans, students discussed the larger problem of pollution’s effect on marine animals. Girls were challenged to design a device to collect plastic pollution from the ocean with minimal disturbance to the marine environment. Each table worked with various materials to construct their device. STEM Crew leaders encouraged students to think about how their device would work – its fuel source, what types of plastic it could collect, where it would store the collected plastics, and its effect on marine life. Each group presented their device to the class. At the end of the activity, students discussed the importance of decreasing plastic pollution and allowing future marine life to thrive.

 

 

Miner Rescue

 

This week the girls became Drilling Engineers as they explored the engineering design process as they created a prototype to rescue trapped miners. They were able to step into the shoes of the petroleum engineers who saved the chilean miners back in 2010 and see how a career in this field can be interesting and full of new challenges.

 

The girls began by learning vocabulary such as borehole, simple machine, mechanical engineering, balanced forces, and mass and how they related to the job they had to perform. They were then introduced to the history of the chilean mine that collapsed, trapping 33 miners underground that were luckily rescued due to the drill created by the engineers. Following, the girls were given materials such as string, pipe cleaners, craft sticks, tape, rubber bands, a spoon, toothpick, straws and scissors to create their very own machine prototype to rescue the miners.

 

The design process began by having the girls brainstorm and draw their idea in their notebook to serve as blueprints. Many girls wanted to jump right in but slowly learned that this led to error and loss of materials. After, the girls were allowed to begin creating a machine that would be able to remove a bouncy call from a toilet paper role that simulated the miners stuck in the mine. The girls quickly began to whisper as they giggled and focused on creating the best design possible. Once they felt their design could work they would test it out and more often than not would think of a new idea to make it more effective. Towards the end of class the girls each presented their idea, described how they engineered it and what further steps they could take to improve their design. From the presentations it could be seen that each group had created a unique design, some using the spoon to remove the ball while others created baskets and claws. Their imagination and persistence clearly shined through in this activity!