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Engineering: A Girl Thing
"Introduce
a Girl to Engineering Day" was launched during National Engineers
Week 2001 and was quickly embraced by groups across the country, reaching
an estimated one million girls annually. When you are working with young
girls, keep the following tips in mind. This advice is provided by the
National Academy of Engineering’s Celebration of Women in Engineering.
Have additional resources:
use the Internet! Have a sheet of good kids’ interactive sites (teacher
tested, kid approved). For example, there's www.discoverengineering.com
and www.nae.edu/cwe. (At this site,
try "Engineer
Girl" for student interaction or the "Resources
and Links" section for information and rated websites for adult
mentors.)
- Remember that girls are more likely to
understand the basic math and science principles underlying the engineering demonstration,
especially while the students are in middle and early high school. Boys, however, are more
likely to be adept at manipulating technologies. Encouraging the girls to strut their
intellectual stuff will help them conquer their techno-shyness. Consciously giving girls a
chance to try the technology or application will help them overcome their tendency to step
back and let the boys do it all.
- Be a myth-buster! Common misconceptions
are technology is boring; math, science and engineering are for guys; boys do better with
numbers - girls do better with people; and scientists and engineers are geeks. Engineering
makes the world a better place to live, is exciting, and helps people. Engineering is a
girl thing!
- Girls are less likely to be interested
in the technology itself than in its application. Girls connect to the world through
emotions and will respond warmly when they see a positive aspect of an engineering
application. This does NOT mean that they are not capable of logical thought! Boys are
likely to enjoy the technology or application for itself, but will also enjoy an emotional
connection to the application.
- Girls are less likely to have
familiarity with engineering as a career, but will be very interested in the many things
that engineers do (not only kinds of engineering, but range of available career choices).
Talk about the kinds of careers that an engineer can have: research, development, design,
construction/production, sales, management, and other careers. People that like to work
with people (girls do!), people that want to do something to make the world a better place
(girls do this too), and people who are curious about the world around them (very girl
thing) all make excellent engineers.
- Talk about the engineering process, and
place your information within context of science principles, engineering application, and
social benefit. It's not just the application, it’s the problem you are trying to
solve, and how it benefits people.
Next: Working with Younger Students
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