Pirates, prosthetics, and STEM

The University of Rochester’s Society of Women Engineers (SWE) chapter came up with an innovative program to engage nearly 100 girls from local elementary schools during a recent STEM workshop on the River Campus. The theme was “seaworthy science” and there was big emphasis on pirates. But, what does that have to do with science, technology, engineering, and math?  

Plenty, as it turns out.  

For example, the girls learned about mechanical engineering principals by building “planks” out of Popsicle sticks to see which one could hold the most pennies. They engaged in a “scavenger hunt” in which they took apart computers to find the circuitry treasures inside.  

Shawn Biehler from the orthotics and prosthetics department at the Medical Center even loaned some leg prosthetics to show the improvements that have been made since the pirates’ classic peg legs. Julie Bentley from the optics department loaned out optics lens kits for the day to teach the girls how telescopes work. 

“At the end of the program, the young girls left excited about STEM and the volunteers remembered why they wanted to go into engineering in the first place,” reports Kathryn LaBine ’18, SWE’s outreach coordinator and a mechanical engineering major. “It was fun to see these young girls so inspired by technology.” 

It was a collective effort, too. About 40 Hajim School volunteers (all undergraduate women) got involved, as did faculty from the Hajim School and the Medical Center along with the student chapter of Women in Computing who taught the girls about coding.  

According to Wendi Heinzelman, dean of the Hajim School, this is exactly the age when “we need to interest female and underrepresented minority students in STEM.” 

—Kristine Thompson (adapted and inspired from this story by Kathryn LaBine ‘18).