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Formerly known as the Engineering Education Advocate
Archives
Books by Celeste Baine
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Engineering Principles Teacher's Guide |
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Engineering Graphics Teacher's Guide |
Aeronautical Engineering Teacher's Guide |
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Civil Engineering Teacher's Guide |
Teaching Engineering Made Easy: A Friendly Introduction to Engineering Activities for Middle School Teachers |
The Musical Engineer: A Music Enthusiast's Guide to Engineering and Technology Careers |
The Fantastical Engineer: A Thrillseeker's Guide to Careers in Theme Park Engineering - Second Edition |
High Tech Hot Shots: Careers in Sports Engineering |
Is There an Engineer Inside You?: A Comprehensive Guide to Career Decisions in Engineering |
Nerd Girls
Earlier this month, I received an excited email from an engineering advocate telling me that I needed to get to the store ASAP and check out the current issue of Newsweek, page 44. I wouldn’t be disappointed. The closest store was a Grocery store but the issue they had was old. I went to another store and their issues were also old. So I waited two days and tried again.
When I saw the new issue (June 16, 2008) on the stand, I first looked at the cover and the word “recession” in large letters across the front. I knew this insider tip had to be better than getting me to read about the recession. Just as I was about to turn to page 44, I glimpsed an article heading called “Nerd Girls” and knew that was what I came for.
The article talks about “Nerd Girl” engineering students at Tuft’s University in Boston that are part of new breed of young women that are “challenging the notion of what a geek should look like, either by intentionally sexing up their tech personas, or simply finding no disconnect between their geeky pursuits and more traditionally girly interests such as fashion, makeup and high heels.”
They have T-shirts emblazoned with “Nerd Girls,” they can talk for hours about aerodynamics and they are working together to build a solar car. The subheading of the article says “ As geeks become chic in all levels of society, an unlikely subset is starting to roar. Meet the Nerd Girls: they’re smart, they’re techie and they’re hot.”
If you spend any time trying to get more girls into engineering or you just want to see more women get involved, be sure to pick up a copy of the article. It’s definitely a wonderful way to spend 10-15 minutes of your day.
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A Different Approach to Recruiting
Purdue University is running a “Cheering in the Classroom” summer camp. They are using it get more girls interested in engineering and technology. There’s a great video about it on the link below but basically, campers spend the week learning about different careers by creating virtual cheerleaders, mixing their own music and programming team pyramids. They work with Purdue Cheerleaders and use a cheerleading/dance platform to learn about each major.
This is definitely a new approach to learning and recruiting. Can your program do something similar? Can you have students make rap songs about engineering? What about creating their own engineering commercials or YouTube videos? What would it take to use football, volleyball or track as a platform to learn about technology?
The real beauty of Purdue’s program is the technology department’s ability to work with other departments in the University. Unfortunately, this is a rare occurrence.
http://www.tech.purdue.edu/Student_Life/diversity/cheering_in_the_classroom.cfm