NEM: Super Engineers!

March is National Engineering Month and we celebrated this week by taking part in the Engspire "Super Engineers!" program. Engspire provided us with a complete meeting-in-a-box - all we had to add was scissors and pencils. We received a complete set of instructions, all supplies needed to complete the activities, and a crest for each girl.

As the girls arrived, they completed their Dues books and checked their Patrol Notebooks. Some Patrols were asked to finish their Patrol activity planning from last week, while others were asked to work on making birthday cards for the 30th Anniversary of Rainbows (5-7 year olds in the UK) for the birthday card exchange.

We had our usual opening ceremony and then moved right into our activities.

The Super Engineers program uses a story line about the group escaping from the lair of an evil genius to tie the activities together:

After an epic battle the evil genius has managed to take you and your team of Super Engineers captive and is keeping you in the dungeon of a castle, on a top secret island! How can you use your collective engineering skills to escape his evil clutches before he returns and feeds you all to his pet shark?

 Activity #1: Electrical Engineering

First things first, it's pretty dark down here in the dungeon; we could do with some light to see if we can find a way out! You feel around in the dark and find some lightbulbs, a car battery and some foam and plastic pieces. How can you use these items to create a light to find the door?

Each girl built their own working flashlight using an LED, CR2010 battery, foam sheet and card.  We learned the right way to connect an LED and how circuits work. 

Activity #2: Software Engineering

Success! Now we can see around the dungeon and discover that there's a single door at one end and it's not even locked! You're about to rush out when you get a funny feeling something's not right. Next to the door you see what looks like a map of the castle showing the way out! The only problem is that also on the map are some symbols showing obstacles which will definitely cause you to be caught, or worse. Before setting out you decide to figure out your route to make sure that your whole team stays safe and also decide that the instructions should be written in code just in case you're captured!

The girls were divided up into groups of 4 and given a code sheet. They had to follow the instructions and write out coded directions to make it through the room. 

Activity #3: Mechanical Engineering

You race outside of the cellar and escape from the castle only to find yourself looking out over an ocean. The lair is on an island. Off to one side you can see some land. You're just about to jump in and swim to safety when you see a fin sticking up out of the water - sharks! If you go in the water you're sure to be dinner! That means we have to go over. 

Strewn across the beach you find some driftwood and old ropes, how can you use this to get to safety before the evil genius discovers your escape?

Each girl was provided with a plastic spoon, 6 popsicle sticks and 5 elastic bands  and challenges to create a catapult to propel themselves (a large pompom) away from the island. A wide variety of catapults were created!

After cleaning up, we discussed the activities the girls had taken part in and learned about different types of engineering, We ended by handing out badges and closed with Taps.

NEM 2016 - Crazy Contraptions

For our first meeting in March, the Guides and Pathfinders participated in the National Engineering Month Crazy Contraptions program. Unfortunately, they were not able to find facilitators for us, so we had to run the program ourselves.

The program organizers provided all the materials needed as well as crests for each participant.

We started out with our usual opening followed by an active game.

The first activity was called "Does/Is Your Engineer...".Each girl was given a card about an engineer. We all shared the name of our engineering and what they do before moving onto the questions. One side of the room was Yes and the other was No. With each question, the girls needed to decide if the statement applied to their engineer or not. This activity opened the girls eyes to the many types of engineering and also to the types of things that engineers do.

The main activity for the evening was building the Cam Toys. We divided the girls into small groups and had each group start by building one toy. They were given a kit, supplies and an instruction sheet. This took about half-an-hour or so with some frustration in getting things to stay together. Each group was then provided with enough kits to make a toy for each girl. This took the remainder of the meeting, but was not as straight-forward as it could be and led to some frustrations. Younger girls would have needed much more Guider intervention to complete this activity.

We ran into a number of challenges doing this activity, however, the girls were all involved and engaged for the entire evening.

Tips for This Activity

• Make a sample before hand so that you know how to put things together.
• Ensure you have lots of alternate methods of 'sticking' things together - i.e. clear tape, masking tape, duct tape, white glue, hot glue guns.
• Encourage the girls to experiment - there is really only one way to put it together in the end, but the girls should reach that conclusion themselves.
• Have an extra activity available for those who finish early. Girls/Groups will take different amounts of time. 

Explorations in STEM - Engingeering Badge (Part 2)

Our final meeting of November was split into two parts, the first spent working on a craft brought by the grandmother of one of our Guides and the second finishing up the Engineering Badge and working towards completing the BC Engineering Challenge.

As the girls arrived, they collected dues and complete their patrol jobs for the week. We opened with our horseshoe, followed by an active game chosen by our Active Living patrol for the week.

The first half of the meeting was spend working on an angel craft brought by a former Guider, and grandmother to one of our Guides. The angel is made out of paper doilies, with a styrofoam ball for the head. The girls enjoyed the craft and had fun doing it!

After cleaning up the craft supplies, we continued with our Engineering activities. Each patrol was challenged to built a raft that would float and support weight (coins). They were provided with the following supplies: a piece of tinfoil, 2 plastic spoons, 3 pipe cleaners, 4 Q-tips, 10 straws, a piece of string, masking tape and scissors. All of the patrols were successful in building a floating raft that could support 27 coins without sinking. Two rafts were beginning to take on water at this point, but the third was still high and dry.

Our final activity for the evening was making the Hoop Gliders (from the BC Engineering Challenge). We flew the gliders around our meeting space before closing with reminders for Friday night and next week followed by Taps.

Explorations in STEM - Engingeering Badge (Part 1)

Our November 17th meeting was spent exploring Engineering and design. As the girls arrived, each had to work together to complete a matching quiz to identify the different jobs involved in building construction.

We opened our meeting with our usual horseshoe, followed by an active game (Everybody's It Tag) led by the Active Living patrol for the evening.

After the game, we took up the Job Match Quiz and discussed the different jobs and skills needed to build a house. The contents of this quiz come from Go For It! Construction (Girlguiding UK):

• A. Carpenter and Joiner = 5. Positioning and fixing timber materials and components. This will include roofs, doors and stairs.
• B. Roof Slater and Tiler = 8. To do this job, you need to know ow to create waterproof coverings for buildings.
• C. Bricklayer = 1. Using bricks and blocks to build the inside and outside walls of buildings.
• D. Painter and Decorator = 12. Applying paint, inside and out.
• E. Plant Operator = 6. Could include driving cranes, excavators and forklift trucks or specialized earthmoving equipment.
• F. Scaffolder = 3. Putting up scaffolding or working platforms for workers to use, and making it safe so that people and objects don't fall off the side.
• G. Plumber = 4. Installing, maintaining and repairing water supplies. This includes drainage and heating systems in houses and buildings.
• H. Estimator = 10. This job requires you to calculate how much money a project will need.
• I. Site Engineer = 2. Making sure that technical aspects of construction projects are correct and that everything is built correctly and to the right standard.
• J. Geospatial Modeler = 7. Includes making 3D models of natural and built landscapes.
• K. Construction Manager = 11. Running a construction site or part of a big project.
• L. Landscape Architect = 9. Designing and managing outdoor spaces.

The girls were than challenges to design an Eco-friendly house.Some ideas included composting facilities, recycling centres, solar panels, and tree planting.

Our final activity, which wound up taking nearly an hour (other planned activities have been postponed until next week!), was a patrol challenge: "Your Patrol has been shipwrecked on a desert island. You have managed to send an SOS message, but there is a big storm moving in so you can't be rescued until tomorrow morning. Can you build a shelter that will keep you all dry overnight?" Each patrol was given 5 newspapers, 4 metres of string, a garbage bag, scissors and masking tape, and the additional instruction that the shelter could not be secured to any furniture, walls, doors, etc.

After cleaning up, the girls shared their Eco-Houses with the group and the meeting ended with reminders for next week and Taps.



The activities done this week cover part of the BC STEM Challenge - Engineering - Job Match Quiz (Discover Engineering) and Shipwreck Shelter (Build a Shelter). We will finish this challenge next week.

Guide Engineering Day @ Mac

On Saturday, May 2nd we took part in the annual Engineering Day for Guides held at McMaster University in Hamilton.

The program is run by engineering students and the Guides complete the requirements to earn the Engineering Badge.

The day started off with a short presentation about the different types of engineering and the programs offered at McMaster.

The first activity was a challenge to find a way to coat a tablet so that it would take 3-4 minutes to dissolve. The girls mixed two ingredients together, choosing from flour, corn syrup, dish soap and honey, coated an antacid tablet and then dropped the covered tablet in a cup of water. Each group was timed to see how long it took for their tablet to dissolve. A brief review was done and then girls tried a second time.

The second activity was led off with a presentation about Aerospace Engineering and the girls then made and launched their own paper airplanes. Again, a review was done after the first launch and the girls were able to make modifications to their airplanes.

The program was well done and the girls had a lot of fun!