Junior Girl Scout Troop 938 engineers a paper-and-tape table.
For example, the team was asked to build a table using only a piece of cardboard, newspaper and tape. They quickly rolled and taped newspaper for legs, attached the cardboard for a top, and then watched it collapse.
"Well, it fell in the middle, so we decided to add another leg right in the middle, and it worked!" explained the team members, pretty much in unison. Anyway, the newly modified five-legged table was a sturdy success. In fact, in later competition, it was capable of supporting six heavy textbooks.
In the final two-part challenge each team member had to think about difficulties in her life, come up with a solution, sketch it out, pick a name, and even draft a marketing plan and jingle. The proposals included Automatic Pillowcase to make it easier to change pillowcases; Shoe Tier to automatically tie shoelaces; Magical Rabbit Cage, a self-cleaning pet enclosure; Non-Squealing Hamster Cage Wheels; and Automatic Color-Changing Shoelaces.
Shoe Tier won at the team level because its plan best explained how to put a shoe-clad foot into an enclosure where small robot arms with pincers would grab the shoelaces and tie them. In the large-group contest, Shoe Tier went up against the automatic-bowl-filling Dogfoodinator, Fishy Feeder and Toothbrushing Ice Cream—"Just keep eating! Safe to swallow!"
What I really learned was that all the future engineers are already out there—bubbling and exploding with ideas and enthusiasm.
Pretty much every school or park district, kids' organization or community has some access to STEM or similar programs. All could use a few real engineers to show up, hang out with the kids, show them what they know, and maybe build a few projects together. Assuming you guys aren't too old already?
