Another year, another successful event!
On Saturday, February 26, the Embry-Riddle Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE) Introduce a Girl to Engineering Workshop (IGEW) Committee hosted our annual IGEW event!
I’ve been on the IGEW committee since October 2020, or the fall of my freshman year. New SWE members are given the opportunity to join one of SWE’s committees via the Committee Ambassador positions, and I was selected last year for the IGEW Committee Ambassador. In April 2021, I was elected back to the committee and we began work for IGEW 2022, which just happened.
The goal of the IGEW committee is pretty self-explanatory- we want to introduce more girls into the field of engineering. To do this, we host the annual IGEW event on a Saturday in mid-to-late February. It’s also free and open to any third through fifth grade in Volusia County. Each elected committee member develops a fun module that demonstrates engineering concepts to the girls and teaches them about engineering.
This year, I designed the Airplane Module, which aimed to teach the basics of aerodynamics. In my module, the girls would first be taught background information and then receive three pieces of construction paper. The paper would be used to create a vastly different airplane design. From there, they could experiment with the airplanes- potentially add tape or stickers to increase weight, throw them harder or softer to change the thrust, and modify the designs to change the lift.
IGEW is a big event, and usually in-person, but for the past two years, it was unfortunately held virtually due to the pandemic. Each module was packed and placed in a tote bag that the IGEW participants could pick up. The event happened on the same day as bag pick-up, so the committee was busy running the station for bag pick-up, which happened behind the student union.
In the bag, there were written module instructions and plenty of other goodies. Each participant got a personalized certificate, T-shirt, lanyard, and a bubble pop toy. On the IGEW website, we posted instructional videos to go along with the modules. There are also videos from guest speakers, including a few ERAU employees. As a final supplement to the event, a few STEM resources were shared.
The event is a lot of work, but we also get pictures sent in from the participants which makes all the work worth it. IGEW is a great yearly project and I’m glad that I got involved early. This year’s turnout was higher than last, and I’m hoping that IGEW 2023 will be in-person.
If you’re an accepted, prospective, or committed student, I highly suggest that you get involved when you’re on campus! SWE is just one of the many (over 200!) registered student organizations on campus. If not a club, maybe an intramural sports team might be more to your liking, or you could join the Student Government Association. I’ll see you in the next post… and hopefully in some organizations at Riddle!
