The goal of attracting young women to engineering and science careers remains an important focus at many universities across the U.S. With the aim of making science and engineering fun for female middle school students, the University of Connecticut sponsors an annual one-day workshop, dubbed Multiply Your Options (MYO), which immerses girls in a variety of fun and illustrative activities geared to familiarize them with science, math and engineering concepts and careers.
The 2010 MYO will take place at the Storrs campus on Thursday, April 8th and entail more than a dozen fun-filled workshops taught in a hands-on, problem solving format by practicing women scientists and engineers, many of whom are UConn alumnae. An afternoon session involves attendees in a deductive reasoning game called “Tool Clues,” in which female role models offers clues about their occupations and the students attempt to deduce their careers.
The event will begin at 9:00 a.m. in the UConn Student Union. Two hundred students are expected to participate, from middle schools across the state.
Workshops will include simple experiments in chromatography, rocket design, roller-coaster design, hot-air balloon design, reverse engineering of commonly used devices, and waste minimization in manufacturing, among others. Each workshop demonstrates important scientific principles and laws, including inertia, force, momentum, chemical separation and identification, propulsion, and artificial intelligence.
A schedule of events and list of participating schools follows. For additional details, please visit the MYO website.
Schedule of Events:
8:30 - 8:55 am Registration, Student Union Ballroom
9:00 - 9:10 am Welcome, Student Union Ballroom
9:20 - 10:20 am Workshop Session I (Students), assigned rooms
10:25 - 11:25 am Workshop Session II (Students), Assigned Rooms
Presenters repeat workshop for different group
11:30 - 12:10 pm LUNCH~Student Union Ball Rooms (Lunch provided for students)
