MakerGirl and EOS North America Host Spring Design Challenge to Provide Virtual STEM Education to Girls in Partnership with Pflugerville Library
Pflugerville, TX (March 21, 2022) In MakerGirl’s effort to continue to create more advanced curriculum experiences to sharpen student’s engineering design, prototyping, and creative thinking, we created our first three-day Spring Break Design Challenge in partnership with EOS North America and the Pflugerville Public Library. The first day introduced students to the world of additive manufacturing and the projects EOS employees work on. The second and third day were design days where students had the opportunity to work through the many challenges and interact with high school & college age ChangeMakers and EOS employees to complete their designs.
“I, personally, was happy to participate in both the planning and the actual three-session design challenge. Working with the ChangeMakers and MakerGirl staff was an excellent experience.”
“EOS was proud to assist with the planning of the design challenge and I, personally, was happy to participate in both the planning and the actual three-session design challenge. Working with the ChangeMakers and MakerGirl staff was an excellent experience,” said Dana Drake, Lab Engineer-Metals at EOS North America. “I’ve worked with many groups doing STEM outreach and I was impressed with the thought and organization that went into activities, and equally impressed with the abilities of the ChangeMakers to engage the participants in our design challenge. We had a good turn out of dedicated volunteers from EOS and I have fielded expressed interest from many colleagues about future events. I hope that this is the first of many collaborative events between EOS and MakerGirl.”
Over the course of three days MakerGirl and EOS collaborated to make a self-paced competition that challenged participants to create designs, document their brainstorming, track design iterations, and expand their skills. Each student completed challenges from a “M.A.K.E.R.” Bingo board, learning various STEM terms, reading about famous women in STEM, and tackling design tasks to accumulate points. At the end of the 3 days, the students who reached the 25 points threshold will receive their own 3D printed object printed by an EOS machine.
“This is by far the largest project I’ve worked on for MakerGirl to date, and I’m so glad it was just as much of a learning experience as it was a teaching experience.”
“One of my favorite parts about being a ChangeMaker is the opportunities I’m offered for professional development. My experience with leading and writing curriculum for the MakerGirl x EOS Design Challenge exemplifies this aspect of MakerGirl. With guidance from leadership, I had the chance to create a new curriculum that MakerGirl has never offered before. I appreciate how I was generously afforded so much initiative and creative freedom,” Elvi Casia, University Director at MakerGirl said. “I also had the chance to improve my collaboration and communication skills as we collaborated with Dana from EOS to bring this Design Challenge to life. While it was nerve-wracking to pilot this Design Challenge to students, as well as both internal and external volunteers, it was so rewarding to see the payoff! This is by far the largest project I’ve worked on for MakerGirl to date, and I’m so glad it was just as much of a learning experience as it was a teaching experience.”
Learn more about our virtual sessions and upcoming #MakerGirlGoesMobile plans!
About MakerGirl
MakerGirl is working to bridge the gender gap in STEM through providing multi-level educational sessions to girls across the country led by high school and university ChangeMakers. Since its founding in 2014, MakerGirl has educated over 5,100 girls in 28 states with half from underrepresented and rural communities.They have created a movement of makers with three different models: University Academies, #MakerGirlGoesMobile, and online curriculum. MakerGirl is on a mission to educate 10,000 students and establish 10 MakerGirl Academies by 2023. Follow the organization on social media @_MakerGirl.
About EOS
EOS North America is a business of EOS, the world’s leading technology supplier in the field of industrial 3D printing of metals and polymers. Formed in 1989, the independent company is a pioneer and innovator for comprehensive solutions in additive manufacturing. Its product portfolio of EOS systems, materials, and process parameters gives customers crucial competitive advantages in terms of product quality and the long-term economic sustainability of their manufacturing processes. Furthermore, customers benefit from deep technical expertise in global service, applications engineering and consultancy.
