What is Miss Maker Fair?
In an attempt to address a lack of girls on the team and in the engineering field in general, a few students on WildStang decided to organize an event aiming to get young girls excited about STEM. And so, Miss Maker Fair was born. Months of planning later, we held the event at one of our team’s high schools, drawing over 30 girls ages 9-13 from several local schools.
How did it work?
The event lasted 4 hours as participants rotated through 3 differently themed activities – mechanical, software, and electrical – all designed and run by WildStang students. Activities included building mouse trap cars, catapults, simple breadboard circuits, learning how to solder, and simple Scratch programming activities. These activities were hands-on and guided to ensure that all the participants had a positive first experience with the STEM fields.
To go along with the guided activities, we put together instructions and kits for the girls to take home, encouraging them to continue learning and exploring even after the event had ended. Demos were done with VEX, FLL, and our 2014 FRC robot; one student even brought in a quadcopter, which only served to enhance the experience.
Great support!
We are very lucky that school district 214 supported us both morally and financially and helped us make this event happen. We also have to give a big “THANK YOU!!!” to our great student, parent, and mentor volunteers.
A guide to hosting your own workshop will be released some time in the future, so be sure to check back!