Engineering Students Host Girls in STEM Workshop

Nearly 200 girls from Volusia County recently enjoyed a day filled with discovery courtesy of the Society of Women Engineers Collegiate Section Collegiate Section at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach Campus.

The “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Workshop” on Feb. 11 was organized and hosted by Embry‑Riddle students, part of a larger ongoing effort by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) to get young girls excited about and involved in STEM.

Although fun was at the top of the agenda, the true focus wasn’t lost on those who attended.

“It made me feel like girls can have science and math jobs, too,” said Arden Emers, a fourth-grade student from Spruce Creek Elementary. “I like that everyone at the camp was kind and encouraged girls to be more confident about themselves."

Addressing a shortage of women in STEM

That confidence was boosted by the Embry‑Riddle chapter’s 43 student volunteers, who served as role models and mentors as they guided the third, fourth and fifth grade girls through activities that included papermaking and building a roller coaster for marbles along with creating airplane launchers, “binary” bracelets and biodomes [self-contained, self-sustaining, human-made environments].

“It felt great,” said Carly McDonald (’24), who was part of the student committee that planned the day. McDonald, an Aerospace Engineering major, designed the airplane launching event, which involved paper aircraft, rubber bands, pencils and plenty of ingenuity.

“I want them to go in engineering,” said McDonald, who wrote a blog post about the event. “I feel like they're going to be the next generation of Embry‑Riddle students, the future leaders in engineering. And I want to see them down the line when I'm working in the industry, and they come in as an intern or maybe a new hire, and they can say something like, ‘Hey, I was at that workshop, and this is why I'm an engineer.’"

Each event challenged the girls to work together – often with others they didn’t know – to surmount obstacles and devise solutions.

“It fostered teamwork skills, which will be extremely valuable as they continue to grow up,” said Claudia Ehringer Lucas, assistant professor of Engineering and the faculty advisor for STEM Outreach and the student SWE chapter.

Teamwork and help from their female guides enabled the girls to create cool things to take home and offered motivation for potential future projects.

“My favorite activity was making the roller coaster because it inspired me to make another roller coaster at home with LEGOS,” said 10-year-old Angelina Brack, a fifth-grade student at Cypress Creek Elementary.

The biodome, or “cool plants in a bottle,” was a major highlight for Florida Virtual School student Madison Garcia, a 9-year-old from Daytona Beach.

“My favorite part was learning about plants, especially the redwood trees,” Madison said.

Third-grader Valentina Brack, an 8-year-old from Cypress Creek Elementary, said her favorite activity was using “beads to create bracelets with coding.”

The 186 female students from private, public and home schools around the county were accompanied by a contingent of interested parents, which brought home another key objective of the event.

“Parent involvement is so important,” Ehringer Lucas said. “By registering their child, they took the first step, and they are encouraging their daughters to learn from new environments and experiences.”

Vanessa Emers, Arden’s mom, is a teacher who gave the event high marks.

“I love that this was not only a learning experience in educational topics but also a day of discovery and character building,” said Emers, a Port Orange resident. “My daughter couldn't wait to share how much she learned. She beamed with confidence and enthusiasm at the end of the day.”

What does it mean to be a woman in STEM?

Instilling enthusiasm for STEM and building the confidence to pursue it were among the objectives of the workshop, which reflected the overarching mission of SWE to give women engineers a unique place and voice in the engineering industry.

The success of this year’s event showcased how Embry‑Riddle students are empowered to share their own experience and knowledge in a way that makes a direct impact on generations that will follow them to college and beyond. It is among the many opportunities Eagles are offered to build practical experience and shape the future even before they earn their degrees.

“I felt proud that of all the work that the entire committee had put in, it resulted in a really successful event,” McDonald said. “All the children seemed to be happy to participate, and so I was glad that they were immersing themselves like I would've at that age.”

The event also helped directly dispel some of the myths about women in STEM.

“This workshop represented a wonderful opportunity for young girls to first begin to explore career paths and interests in areas that have long been considered unusual for females to participate in,” Ehringer Lucas said. “I am very proud of all the young women and girls who took part in this important event, both as young students engaging in new hands-on activities and as the volunteers guiding them.”