Civil Engineering & Achieving Your Goals with Michelle Kwan!

Today was a fantastic second day of camp!

We started off the day with our first Do-Now. Do-Nows are discussion prompts relating to engineering. We first have students write down their responses and then gather in a circle to discuss their ideas. Today's Do-Now asked students if old buildings should be renovated or replaced with new ones. The students did an awesome job of relating the Do-Now to what they see occurring in Rhode Island, especially in their high schools.

Next, we watched a TED Talk from Debbie Sterling, a mechanical engineer from Rhode Island. She founded GoldieBlox, a toy company that produces products that encourage girls to enter engineering. She talked about the vast gender gap in engineering and how people today can work to make sure that there is more equal representation for future female engineers.

We then had our first guest speaker of the camp, Olympic figure skater and Sr. Advisor to the State Department, Michelle Kwan! She gave the students advice about how to follow your dreams and shared stories about personal experiences that taught her so much. It was an honor to have her speak at Spira and we are extremely grateful for her visit!

Today, Izzy also led lectures about civil engineering. She explained that civil engineering deals with structures, both natural and manmade. She also went over one of the most important geometric patterns in civil engineering, trusses.

The students then got to test their knowledge of the lessons by starting construction on their balsa wood bridges! The class was split up into 4 teams of 3 and each team received 18 24-in. balsa wood sticks, box cutters, scissors, and glue. Tomorrow the bridges will be finished and tested. The bridge with the highest strength-to-weight ratio will win.

We are excited for the first Mentor Wednesday of the camp and to go over industrial design with the students!