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Category: Engineering  |  Career: Engineer

Tower of Power

Purpose:  To help girls understand what a engineer does. To help girls examine several different kinds of engineering. To expose the girl’s to a hands-on activity that uses principles of engineering.

Supplies: Pre-Activity Prep: Write down numbers 1-4 on small pieces of paper. Make sure to have enough slips of paper for your attendees. For example, If your workshop has 24 young women, you will have to make 6 groups of numbers. Put a box of spaghetti noodles aside for each group. Note: Before the activity begins, decide if the young women are going to be building houses or residential structures.

I. Introduction (4 minutes): The activity should begin with an introduction. The first step should be to gather the girls and make a definitive statement that the workshop is going to begin. “Hello, my name is _________ and I am a ____ engineer. I am here today to show you some things I do as part of my job. Today we are going to learn about what engineers do. The purpose of today’s activity is to examine some key principals of engineering. We will also be building a house of noodles using some of the principles we talk about.

“Let’s begin by doing the following. Please introduce yourself to the person next to you. I would like you to talk with the person sitting next to you about two things. Number one is a definition of a engineer that you both agree with. Please write your definition on the gray sheet of paper. Number two is to list three things you think an engineer does. Write these three things on the yellow sheet of paper. We will have a few minutes for this discussion.

II. Collecting information (2 minutes): “I would like your attention now, please. Would one of you please bring your definition to this wall and tape it up with masking tape. The other person, please take your list of three tasks to that wall and tape them up here”.

III. Using information (2 minutes): “Let’s look at these definitions of a ____ engineer. I see many of you have a pretty clear definition of what the term ‘____ engineer’ means. It is, in fact, someone who does ________ There are many different kinds of engineers. Can you name a few and tell me what they do? (wait for responses)

Now let’s look at the things you think a ____ engineer does. This is a pretty good list. I do some of these things, like [points to examples from lists]. I also [continues with list of things that you do on the job].” Other engineers do things which I don’t (use examples) Have any of you ever met another engineer before? What types of engineers did you meet? What were some of the things they did?

IV. Hands-on activity (30 minutes): “Now that you know some of the things I do as a engineer let’s do an actual activity that involves principles of engineering. Don’t forget, that a ___ type of engineer would work on this type of project.

Let’s begin to build our house of noodles. Remember our goal is to make them as sturdy as possible.

I would like to begin by asking you to divide into groups of four. When you came to this workshop you received a number of 1,2,3, or -4 on a piece of paper. I am going to ask all of the 1’s to gather here (pick a table or space) Will everyone who has a two please gather here? (point to a space) Ask the 3’s and 4’s to also gather in their designated space.

Good, now that you are all gathered, I would like to ask you to please introduce yourselves to your group”.

As a ___ engineer, there are some very important building principles used in my work. Before we begin our hands-on activity, I want to explain a few of these principles to you. (Explain what these principles are and how they relate to the building activity)

10 minutes Now we are going to do something an engineer actual does. Build things! In front of you, you will see a box of noodles. It’s time for you to use some of the principles you have learned just now, and try to build a sample house of your own using the noodles.

Your structure does not have to be a certain style. It can be creative or straightforward. However, it should be built to withstand certain elements. After you have built your structure, I will come around with a battery hand-held fan and I will point the fan towards your house to see if your structure is sturdy. Remember, to use some of the engineering principles we previously talked about. This will help you design a better structure. Remember that you will have 15 minutes to do this activity. I will walk around and answer any questions you might have”.

V. Structure testing (5 minutes): Your buildings look great. Let’s test them to see how structurally sound they are. Group one, tell everyone how and why you made the decision to build this type of structure. (Let the answer) O.K, now we will test the house. (point fan)

Do the same for groups 2-4.

VI. Re-build (5 minutes): “Now that you have seen which buildings stand and which ones have fallen, it’s now time to re-build your structure using some of the principles you have observed. You will have 10 minutes to re-build your structure

VII. Structure testing (5 minutes): “Your structure look much better. This time we will start with group 4. Tell us what changes you have made to your initial structure. (listen to answers) O.K, let’s give it the test. How many of you think that the structure will hold up? Continue the test with the remaining groups.