A few lucky St. Mary junior high girls spent Oct. 21 simulating survival of a plane crash, building rockets and soldering circuits for a service project all at the Inquire, Innovate, Invent Day at the University of Akron.
Inquire, Innovate, Invent Day
A few lucky St. Mary junior high girls spent Oct. 21 simulating survival of a plane crash, building rockets and soldering circuits for a service project all at the Inquire, Innovate, Invent Day at the University of Akron. The program is designed to teach girls how the innovations of women have impacted many lives and how they can become innovators and inventors.
Attendees had the opportunity to talk to female engineers and scientists, meet inventors, learn about patent law, explore careers in research and development and explore their creative side while working hand in hand with science.
The girls began by building their own electronic Simon game, which Ellie Daugherty said was “quite frustrating but gave me a sense of accomplishment when done.”
Following that, the students were given everyday objects like zip ties and paint sticks and asked to construct and item that would grab a raft that was floating away from them after a simulated plane crash. In addition, the girls built rockets and created homemade batteries to fuel buzzers as well as creating circuits for a service project.
Junior high science teacher Sarah Allin, who attended with her students, said, “It was a great event for our students, but it also helped me to bring back new ways to teach STEM concepts to all my students.”
Eighth-grade student Ellie Daugherty said, “It was a fun day and I will definitely look more into engineering career options and classes in the future.”
