Akron Life March 2022

EDUCATION

CO L L E G E E X P E R I E N C E University of Akron camp helps girls learn engineering.

The University of Akron also offers a camp for high school girls called

“Summer Experience in Engineering,” which is similar to the middle school camp, but is more advanced and involves staying on campus the whole week. The kids work on projects that are more complicated and in-depth. “They work with a pro fessor, and we try to give them more of an experience like what they’re going to have in college by working in a lab environment,” Cressman says. One of the highlights is that the high school campers get to build

a robot to bolster their knowledge of

computer engineering. “We have an LED dis

photos provided by The Univeristy of Akron

Engineering doesn’t have to be a daunting field for students. “You don’t come out of the womb knowing math. Everyone learns it in school. The same is true of engineering,” says Heidi Cressman, the director of diversity and inclusion in the University of Akron’s College of Engineering and Polymer Science. “Some kids have no exposure to it. So [STEM camps] are a great way to get exposure to these fields at a young age.” The University of Akron’s “Multiply Your Options” day camp is geared toward seventh- and eighth-grade girls interested in exploring the different engi neering fields. Each day is dif ferent, with focuses correspond ing to the university’s five major

engineering degrees: mechanical, electrical, chemical, civil and biomedical. “We sprinkle in some aerospace systems, corrosion engineering and computer engineering because we offer those,” Cressman adds, “but we focus on the five big ones, primarily.” Middle school kids start the day with a lecture, about 30 to 45 minutes long, from a faculty member and are led through a hands-on project. Then they get to observe engineering in action. “After lunch, we usually go on a company tour related to that particular major,” Cressman says. “If we’re studying civil engineering that day, we try to take a tour on a civil engineer ing site with a local company that we partner with.”

The kids also work on a week long engineering design project in the late afternoon, like building cardboard pinball machines. “The kids design and build their own game boards ... to include hazards and can even wire lights and alarm buzzers.” The goal, Cressman says, is to influence the kids’ coursework going into high school. “In a perfect world, we would introduce this sort of thing to even younger girls. But in seventh and eighth grade, you can influence the coursework they’re getting ready to take in high school by introducing them to camps like this,” she says. “I think this age, and even a little younger, is ideal for helping make some career deci sions a little earlier on.”

play the kids learn to program,” Cressman says. “And then they program the LED to light up in a specific way to make it say, I love you , for example.” Cressman says her own college experiences have inspired her to teach more girls engineering and math skills. “When I went here as a stu dent, there were so few women choosing engineering as a career. There was nothing like this for girls,” she says. “So whatever I can do to encourage the next generation, I’m all about it.” For more information, visit uakron.edu/engineering/ k12-programs. BB

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