Elementary Engineering

ExtravaganzaBy Geena Petrone

On Saturday October 18th, Pitt SWE h o s t e d o u r F a l l E l e m e n t a r y Engineering Extravaganza. The event was a huge success thanks to the support of all of our SWE volunteers! Approximately 40 elementary school students from around the Pittsburgh area came to Pitt to participate in engineering related activities, and learn more about how important it is to explore all aspects of the STEM fields. Students participated in various activities including constructing a windmill out of craft supplies, which relates to renewable energy, a huge topic in today’s engineering world. The students also made tables out of newspaper and masking tape, an activity relating to civil engineering, providing the opportunity to learn the important characteristics of a sturdy structure. Activities were done with the intention of sparking the curiosity

ALSO INCLUDED:

RIDDLE: PAGE 2

NEXT MONTH’S EVENTS: PAGE 2

WINNERS OF S2S: PAGE 3

OFFICER OF THE MONTH: PAGE 3PITTSBURGH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY’S 2ND

ANNUAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FESTIVAL

GIRL SCOUT ENGINEERING DAY

PITT SWE VOLUME 5 ISSUE NO.2

THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS

Highlights: In this Issue

OCTOBER, 2014

PAGE 2 PAGE 3

of the students at a young age so that hopefully someday they will become engineers!

While the students enjoyed snack time, their parents watched a presentation by Mary Zeis, who is the VP of Outreach for the Pittsburgh Professional Society of Women Engineers. Ms. Zeis talked to the parents about the importance of getting their children involved in the STEM fields, and how to do so while the children are still in elementary school. The day ended with some very cool demonstrations that captivated the students, such as a “Tornado Tube”, where a small scale replica tornado was created in a soda bottle. This activity was

done to show students how engineers have to relate what they do to the real world. In the real world, natural disasters like tornados are a variable that needs to be accounted for when building and designing new structures.

Overall , the event was a g reat e x p e r i e n c e fo r vo l u n t e e r s a n d a t t e n d e e s a l i ke ! E l e m e n t a r y Engineering Extravaganza will be held again in Spring 2015, so if you’d like to participate as a volunteer or offer some fun activity ideas, please contact pittswe.outreach@gmail.com for more information

Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy’s 2nd Annual Science and Technology Festival

By Nina Obwald

NEXT MONTH

GE Networking: 11/6

High School Day:11/7

BMES/SWE: 11/11

Coffee Hour: 11/13

Networking with Professionals: 11/15

Middle School Day: 11/22

Ice Skating: Week of 11/17

Thank you:

Thank you to Nina Obwald, SWE’s webmaster, for a fantastic new website! Be sure to check it out at www.pitt.edu/~pittswe/

Also to Brooke Arnold, SWE’s Special Events Coordinator, for the new newsletter template!

The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University sections of SWE took part in the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy’s 2nd Annual Fall Science and Technology Festival on Wednesday, October 22, 2014. The festival invites groups from the Pittsburgh area to present science and technology demonstrations to encourage students and their families to learn more about the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields.

On the evening of the 22nd, PittSWE members met with CMU-SWE members at the Academy, which is located directly next to Benedum Hall on Thackeray Street. The members then set up a booth that featured do-it-yourself lava lamps and pinwheels! The lava lamps utilized oil, water, food coloring, and alka-seltzer tablets. After adding water, oil, and food coloring to a bottle, an alka-seltzer tablet was then added. The tablet reacted with the water to create gas bubbles, and that gas rose to the top of the bottle, bringing with it some of the food coloring. When the gas bubbles popped at the top of the bottle, the food coloring fell back down through the oil and water. This was a great demonstration of the property of density and of a chemical reaction that creates gas!

Students could also make their own pinwheels at the Pitt and CMU SWE booth as a small craft to promote the field of wind power.

Many students and their families stopped by our booth, and everyone loved the lava lamps and pinwheels. Our members received a lot of praise for our demonstrations and for our promotion of females in technology and engineering fields. Overall, it was a fun evening and it was very rewarding to be able to demonstrate the power of STEM!

RIDDLE

“I am the beginning of the end, as well as the end of time

and space. I am essential to

creation and I surround every

place. What am I?

If you get the answer of this riddle go to the

SWE office with your answer to claim a cool

prize!

Girl Scout Engineering

DayBy Lisa Cross

The Pitt SWE chapter held a Girl Scout Engineering Day on October 4th. The event lasted from 8am to 12pm and was offered to Junior Girl Scouts (4th and 5th graders). The approximately twenty girls in attendance were split into groups to attend different stations. At each station, the girls learned about a particular engineering discipline and completed an activity related to the discipline. A favorite activity among the girls was making lip gloss in the chemical engineering station. The girls also enjoyed building marshmallow and toothpick bridges for civil engineering. The industrial engineering station taught the girls about efficiency. There, the girls worked on improving their friendship bracelet processes. Other activities included building creative prosthetic hands (inventions of string, straws, and pipe cleaners to pick up objects), coloring pixels in a pre-made grid to make a picture, and making bracelets

from recycled materials. This event t a u g h t t h e y o u n g g i r l s t h a t engineering is a fun and creative field and definitely a career for girls too. We completed the day with a snack, and the girls had some souvenirs and a certificate of completion to take home with them.

OFFICER OF THE MONTH: RACHEL DUNNRachel was chosen because she worked hard to get all of the SWE merchandise, including the quarter zips and giveaway items for the club.

Class: Sophmore

Major: Mechanical Engineering!In Charge of: Fundraising Interests and Clubs: SWE,Yoga Club, Pittsburgh Penguins, Soccer, Reading, Math, and hanging out with Friends

BIG NEWS: CONGRATS

Third Place: Ciaira Price

Not Pictured

Our Section’s Stilettos to Steel Toes Scholarship winners!

Thank you!

Second Place: Erica Stevens

First Place: Amanda Albano

Rachel’s favorite parts of SWE are the opportunity for professional development and being able to interact with other female engineers.