April 25, 2019

Prince Lower School Girls Participate in Engineering Day Program

Prince 3rd – 5th-grade girls recently had the unique opportunity to participate in “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” (Girl Day).  Girl Day was sponsored by volunteers with the University of Georgia Student Chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) as part of the broader Engineers Week that promotes recognition among parents, teachers, and students of the importance of a technical education helping to motivate youth to pursue engineering careers. The program involved an introductory video, snacks, and three stations focusing on three different engineering disciplines.

The civil engineering station involved girls designing, building, and testing bridges made out of paper, string, and popsicle sticks. The biological/biomedical engineering station involved students observing, making predictions and testing solubility of various forms of medicines, antacid tablets, gel caps, etc. The third station focused on mechanical engineering. Students designed paper and rubber band balls to be launched by a simple catapult. They predicted the behavior of the catapulted ball based on the size and resistance of the rubber band. They then tested their predictions by catapulting the ball they designed.

Prince parent Hillary Tanner is a Lecturer with the UGA College of Engineering and the faculty advisor for the Student Chapter of the SWE.  She helped to organize the event and said it was a great success.  “We had a great turn-out with 25 girls participating.  We sure had fun, and I think the girls did too!”