Camp Girl introduces girls to engineering

Our Mobile office took part in an event called "Camp Girl," a one-day camp that targets girls entering the 5th to 7th grades, to motivate them toward STEM careers. It was a day of hands-on science, engineering, and leadership activities held at ARTHOUSE in Mobile and organized by Focus Empowering Women.

The girls were asked to create a structure utilizing straws (long and short) and marshmallows (large and small) that could withstand a simulated earthquake from a shake table made from Jell-O. First, they sketched out their design plan, figuring out how many of each item they needed. Once they completed their design they were given the number of straws and marshmallows they specified in their plan.

After everyone was done building their structures, they were tested on the Jell-O by simulating an earthquake and timed until the structure fell over. We then repeated from the beginning, to let the girls take what they learned from the first round and build a second structure with an improved design.