Approximately 45 Middle Tennessee Girl Scouts will have the opportunity to earn their “Engineering Day” patches at Vanderbilt University on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
A group of Vanderbilt graduate and undergraduate students will lead the juniors and cadets (grades 4-8) through projects designed to introduce them to a wide variety of engineering disciplines.
The event is the brainchild of Vanderbilt School of Engineering graduate student Thushara Gunda, who was looking for a service project in her role as an officer in the Vanderbilt chapter of the American Nuclear Society. The Girl Scouts do not currently offer any national skill-based badges in STEM, so Gunda and her fellow students wanted to give the girls an opportunity to earn a participation patch instead.
Using common household objects, each girl will participate in three of the following seven workshops:
- Biomedical engineering: Design and test prosthetic legs
- Chemical engineering: Build and test rockets
- Civil engineering: Build skyscrapers and test their stability
- Electrical/computer engineering: Design programmable nightlights
- Environmental engineering: Learn how oil spills affect the environment and test methods of protecting wildlife from oil spills
- Mechanical engineering: Design and build roller coasters
- Nuclear engineering: Learn about reactor design, test radiation and explore methods of reducing radiation exposure
Scouts will receive their patches in a ceremony at the end of the day.
Media are invited to attend.
- Who: Vanderbilt engineering students and Middle Tennessee-area Girl Scouts
- What: Girl Scout Engineering Day
- When: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. (wrap-up and patches awarded starting at 2:30)
- Where: Featheringill Hall on Vanderbilt’s campus (map)
- Why: The Girl Scouts do not currently offer any skill-based badges in STEM. Gunda and her fellow students developed the program to provide area Scouts the opportunity to earn a participation patch instead.