MSOE Encourages Girls to Reach for New Heights
| Published: 07/14/2008 |
|
Blast Off...
MSOE's Women in Technology (WIT) Program, which encourages female students in rural Wisconsin to pursue science, technology, engineering and math fields, sponsored five all-girls teams for the annual Rockets for Schools Program. More than 800 students from Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan participated in program May 9-10 in Sheboygan, Wis. MSOE partnered with the local 4-H clubs of Manitowoc, Fond du Lac and Sheboygan Counties as well as the Girl Scouts of Manitou Council to recruit girls for this program. Each of the MSOE-sponsored teams built a Class One rocket. One of them, the Sheboygan "Girls Rock-ets," placed second in the competition.
The project also included designing a payload, taking a written test, putting a poster board together and doing a presentation in front of the judges. Teams also were assigned various jobs, including mission control and rocket recovery. One highlight of the event was a presentation by Winston Scott, a NASA astronaut who described his adventures on the space shuttle to a very attentive audience. Students also attended workshops to learn about aviation and space during the two day event.
Taking to the Skies...
With a grant from the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, WIT partnered with the Sheboygan Aviation Center and the EAA to present the All Girls Aviation Day June 25 at Sheboygan Memorial Airport. Twenty-seven high school females were introduced to many aspects of the aerospace fields during the day-long workshop.
The day started with a motivational presentation by Lesley Poberezny of the EAA. Besides being introduced to the world of aerospace, the students took a behind-the-scenes tour of the bustling county airfield. Part of the tour included seeing first-hand the operations of a (Fixed Base Operator) FBO, touring an aerial photography company, seeing the aircraft that helps endangered wildlife and hearing how the wildlife are helped. Breakout sessions were held on basic aerodynamics and meteorology.
Morgan Aviation introduced the prototype of the Extremely Maneuverable Jet (EM-J) which will be manufactured at the Sheboygan Airport in the very near future. The girls also participated in a paper airplane contest, which tested their knowledge of the lessons of the day. A Wright simulator was available for the girls to envision flying as the Wright Brothers did in the early days of aviation. The day culminated when each girl flew in a single-engine aircraft as part of the EAA Young Eagles Flight program.
Family Ties July 2008