Hosting Organization: Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey
Date: March 22, 2019
Learners Impacted: 90
Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey offered three NJ STEM Month events, each called “Tinker Maker Coder Spy”; one at each of our three council service centers (March 22-24). Brownie and Junior Girls (Grades 2-5) rotated through four different STEM stations.
At the Tinker station, girls experimented with foam tubes and marbles to design a marble run. The girls had a blast making hills, loop-de-loops, and bumps for their marbles to roll over, but had to try to design them to keep the marble in the track. We were impressed with how well the girls explained their designs using the concept of energy.
In the Maker station, girls learned how to build a circuit from a motor and a battery. Then they attached their vibrating motor to two toothbrush heads and a plastic Easter egg to make their own little cruising bots. After their first attempts to make the eggs move, the girls experimented with the best place to attach their motors. Their designs and redesigns were so creative and fun to watch as they scooted around the tables!
At our Spy Station, girls learned how to use Fingerprints and features of imitation bones to solve a mystery. Girls measured the length of a humerus and femur, and looked at the shape of a skull and pelvis to decide if a skeleton was male or female. We were most impressed with how well the girls explained their evidence and reasoning to help catch the crook!
Finally, at the Coder Station, girls explored two different coding websites: HourOfCode.com or CodeCombat.com. Many of the girls already had experience with coding and quickly caught on to coding in Python! At this station, they also had an opportunity to meet and talk with women who are STEM professionals: Paula- a Mechanical Engineer and a former Girl Scout, and Shekerah- a Research Scientist at Rutgers who is studying Lyme Disease in the human body.
We were so lucky to have all of these ladies join us and share their *STEMthusiasm*!