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So, this is University of Utah SWE's first
ever Girl Scout Night Jr for girls in K to 5, so it's the really little ones. We did
a kind of introduction to engineering.
*background* What does fire need to stay alive
or to not die down? Ooh, look at that.
Alright, so I just want to welcome you here to the College of Engineering at the University
of Utah. We are the Society of Women Engineers, so we are all about girls in engineering.
Wooo, me
So, who thinks they might want to do science
when they get big? * cheers*
yay, science So, who likes math?
So who thinks they might want to put math and science together?
And that's called Engineering! So we get to use math and science, every day.
It's awesome.
We had four activity stations for them. We
made some silly putty... You guys are going to make your own Silly
Putty. We did some buildings and then tested them
on the earthquake table, and we did an egg drop, and we also played with static electricity,
some plasma balls, a Van De Graaf generator. Some cool stuff.
So what we're doing with the balloon now,is we're, by rubbing it all over her hair, it's
building up static electricity all over the balloon. Good job.
So now, there's a whole bunch of static electricity on the balloon. And what we're gonna do, if
you look really closely at the pepper, we are gonna be able to pick up pepper without
touching it. It's actually a totally different kind of
light bulb. So these have something inside them, they have a gas inside them that lights
up when the electricity flows through it. This has a solid inside it that has to light
up and get hot, like when you burn wood in a fire.
Ok, stir it up. Does everyone have a good color?
Great, do you need some more? It's snot color.
Alright, so what we're doing in here, we're doing polymer science. We started with non-newtonian
fluid, which is where we mix cornstarch and water and we showed them when it hits it's
solid, and when it's moving around in the bowl and on the table, it flows like a liquid.
And then we talked about how polymers are formed. So, we told them that the prefix poly
means many and polymers are chains of molecules. And then we made putty, with glue and borax,
and we explained that glue is floating around in it's liquid form and then the borax comes
in and connects in and makes a chain. So the putty they're playing with is a polymer.
Now you guys are scientists. Doing Chemistry!
Look what we're trying to make. Gotcha
Do you have an idea what shapes you're going to use?
A round one. Awesome
We are building structures with gumdrops and toothpicks. And we're testing them out, to
see which shapes hold up the best when put under stress.
You can make it either like wide and short, or high and tall, or which ever, however you
want to make it. Do you want to make it really tall, or really
wide? Wide? You can do that.
What do you think would make a good way to start the process.
We're starting with a gum... We're starting with a thing we called a gumdrop gate. So
we're starting with a gate made out of gumdrops. Let's make it so it stands right here.
Ok. Oh, goodness. So what kind of shapes do you
have in there? You got some triangles and some what?
Cones and cubes. A cone and some cubes. Alright!
Well, let's see what happens. Stand back a little bit, so you don't get hit. Oh no, oh
no! Oh man, Oh my gosh.
It's spinning in circles! Uh oh, it looks like something fell off.
Can you guys help me out here in the front? Woah.
Thirteen inches * giggles*
It makes a difference Look at how stable that is. It's awesome.
Wow, look at that. Oh my gosh. Wow.
Look at that, nothing budged. Tower of doom.
Can I get a high five? Yeah! So good. So why do you think it didn't fall over?
Well, because, it's so strong, we built it so good.
Yeah, you're right. what's your favorite thing that you did so
far? The putty
The putty The putty is your favorite thing? why?
The putty and the eggs You like the eggs?
What are we doing guys? we're dropping the eggs.
So what did we make? Parachutes and other devices.
So they made devices where some of them made parachutes so we're gonna cushion the egg
and drop it and see if it splatters or if it survives.
If only we could use this as a parachute No, no no, that's not it
What did you guys do to your bag? Well, we used newspaper and wrapped it around,
then we taped it around and then we just tied the bag.
What did you guys do? We took the newspaper and wrapped it around,
and then we put the bag over it, so it acts like a parachute, so when the egg's falling,
it will fall slowly. *ahh, oh, the sound of eggs falling*
Oh no! So, if we had to do this all over again, what
would you guys do? Parachute!
Alright. Ours survived!
Well, partially. It had a crack. Like a little crack.
But it wasn't smooshed? No
That's awesome. You guys like that one?
Our main goal is to get girls excited about science and engineering, and just have a really
fun time.