Middle Schoolers Learn about Engineering at Yale GradSWE Event

04/19/2018

The Yale chapter of the Graduate Society of Women Engineers (GradSWE) recently hosted about 200 middle school students from across Connecticut to teach them about different types of engineering.

The event, CT SEED (Connecticut Students Exploring Engineering Day), gave the students an opportunity to learn about biomedical engineering by building a mock endoscopic tool with erector set pieces and tested their tools with USB cameras to mimic endoscopic surgery. For electrical engineering, the students soldered LEDs and variable resistors to a printed circuit board. Turning each variable resistor knob changes the brightness of each individual red, green, and blue LED. These LED signals combine in a fourth LED to demonstrate color mixing.

Finally, students learned about environmental mimicry in engineering with an experiment studying the hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties of different materials and through a structural design challenge.

With an Ask-an-Engineer panel, students heard from four engineers (an undergraduate student, a graduate student, and two professional engineers) about their work and their path to engineering. Topics included what it’s like to be an engineer, what it’s like to be a female engineer in a traditionally male-dominated field, and what kind of impact engineers can have on society.

Programming was also held for parents and educators throughout the day. Our PEP program consisted of a presentation about strategies to engage middle school students in STEM, a Yale campus tour, a hands-on activity/demonstration session, and a panel discussion with engineers and STEM educators. The goal for our PEP program was to show parents and educators that STEM can be accessible to everyone and to introduce them to resources for activity ideas and inexpensive activity supplies.

The organizers said the event was a great success and plan to host a second annual CT SEED event next spring.