Event Reflections
SWE Panel Assembly This was a very fun and interesting event, that was completely different from all of the other events that our team has hosted. Instead of doing STEM activities, we were answering questions about STEM and Girls Build LA.
We were so happy to see that Mr. Cruz brought his class to our assembly, when he usually does not bring them to pep rallies or assemblies. We do believe that we made an impact because we were able to coordinate a panel for all of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at our school so they could have the opportunity to speak with professional women and men who have a STEM occupation and learn more about what is it like to be an engineer. STEM Exibition We want to give a big shout out to Valeria, because she attended one of our workshops at the Palmdale City Library and from there she became inspired and was interested in joining us at our future events. Valeria took charge of our booth and she did an amazing job. We are thankful for her for helping us because most of our team had to present in the competition. We used our free time between presenting to help her.
STEM Family Night It felt great when cute little kids asked us if we were a teachers, or scientists. They also loved getting their face painted, and had a lot of fun at all the different stations.
Many of the people who came to Science Family Night also saw our two Girls Build LA shirts and they wanted to buy them! I was surprised that the shirts that we made for our team attire had grabbed the attention of practically everyone at our event! We know that we made an impact because the children who left our workshop were enthralled with science and could not get enough of it! Many of them asked to do the same activity over and over again! We left our event feeling accomplished and happy that we finally were able to outreach to our community at our school! It was all possible thanks to Ms. Lighston’s support. Workshops Nevaeh loved the mealworms so much that she told us that she wanted to take some home as a pet, so we gave her about eight mealworms in a cup to take home. When she took the survey, she also said that she wanted to be a scientist when she grew up and she wanted to do more science.
When we looked over our survey we saw that every single person who came to our workshop were interested in STEM after they experienced it. This shows us that all we need is to give girls the opportunity to experience STEM, and they will most likely fall in love with science, technology, engineering, and math. One boy from PLP who already loved science, continued to ask questions throughout the entire workshop and wanted to learn as much as he could. When asked what he thought about having a woman president, this is what he said,”yes, I think we should have a president that is a girl because she will be nicer, and let people from other countries into America. A girl would be a better president than a man.” |
Launching a weather ballon to the stratosphere with the help of NASA We were amazed that Ms. Kim and Ms. Tegan spent their entire day working with us and made a presentation to teach us everything a meteorologist needs to know! We are the first group that has launched a weather balloon with them! They took their time to make a wonderful presentation just for our group of middle school girls, which is amazing.
We believe that we made an impact because we gained a bounty of knowledge at NASA, and we are going to share our experience and knowledge with our community, and the next generation. This information will help children develop an interest in STEM and be prepared for the future! Rocio said,"This might influence my future because before I went to NASA, I knew that I wanted to become an Attorney, but after working with meteorologists, launching a balloon, and learning about weather, I am really interested in meteorology now!" Nailea mentioned,"I never thought that I would have the opportunity to go to NASA, and I don't know if I will have another opportunity like this again." LA County Air Show We were surprised that so many people were interested in creating their own Girls Build LA team. It shows us that girls really are influencing the future and being part of a Girls Build LA team is giving us the opportunity to have a large part in this movement.
We believe that we made an impact by serving our community at the Air Show because many of the young girls and parents who came to our table were enthralled by our science experiments and all of the girls were interested in at least one of the science experiments. This shows us that we are making a difference because the more girls that we can get to develop an interest in Science, the better our future will be. We were surprised that many boys were pulled away from our table by their mothers! The boys would come up to our table and look at the mealworms, and their Mom would pull them away form the table, telling them that it is a girls’ club. We tried to tell the parents that their sons could still explore STEM at our table, but they did not listen, and it was frustrating. We thought that it was sad that the parents would not allow their sons to go to our table. Our goal is to show that STEM is for everyone, not to exclude boys! GBLA Club at SAGE We were given the chance to go to SAGE Middle School Academy and motivate a few girls so that they themselves could start their own Girls Build LA team. We had a total of 5 girls from our own team to go to SAGE Academy using the school van. When we arrived, we were all a bit nervous but at the same time excited, and we all knew why we were there; to motivate and inspire.
When we arrived at the room where we all sit down and talked to each other, we kind of just let our hearts speak for us. The girls from SAGE Academy were diverse, from being shy to outgoing, and from different grades. There were 2 8th graders, 1 7th grader, and 2 6th graders. 1 of the 6th graders was quite shy, but as we began talking, she tried to get into the conversation with us. When we entered the room, we first did an Ice Breaker, a method to get to know each other first, so that we wouldn't be all awkward.Then we all sat down and started talking about what Girls Build LA was all about, and how we all enjoyed what we were doing as a team. Ms. Sloane, our current team mentor, bought cookies for us to all eat while talking, which was nice, because then we all kind of eased up to each other while eating cookies. Overall, the experience itself wasn't as nerve-wrecking as we all thought it would be. It was very nice and the girls from SAGE were all quite out-going after the Ice Breaker we did. Christmas Parade We were able to walk in the Christmas parade with a poster that said,"Girls Build LA from Palmdale Learning Plaza. [email protected]"
I believe that we were able to make an impact because many of the people that we walked by and who saw the poster, seemed thoughtful and interested afterwards. To be able to empower others, we need girls to feel confident about themselves, to know that they have the power to change the world. It starts with our city,and our school, so we need to represent girls and outreach to our community, starting with small acts like walking in a parade and expanding to a fair or conference. We were very pleased to be able to accomplish this because it was a new experience to us and we did not know what to expect; we had never been in a parade before, and now we were not only in a parade, but also impacting others through it. As we were walking we were thinking that it probably would be a great idea to have our own float, It could be a lot of fun to decorate it, hopefully next year our Girls Build LA from PLP float will be in our city for the first time! |
Book FestivalThe very first girls who came to our table already knew who we were through social media and they also wanted to take a picture with us! We were surprised that people from our community wanted to take pictures with us, especially since we were the ones who usually asked for pictures! It was incredible how the situation had flipped! One first grade student from Palmdale Learning Plaza came to our event and her name is Ruby. She immediately recognized us and was so happy to see us at the event. She became interested in our experiment and spent almost the entire time that she was at the Book Festival at our booth! She participated in our activity more times than any other child! We know that we made an impact with this service because Ruby, like so many other children was delighted to see the rocket launch and even more happy to know that she had the ability to conduct a successful science experiment! An artist that came to our table after we talked to him, he went to our mentors and told them with tears in his eyes, these girls really know what they are doing, ”most of these programs have been removed from our city due to budget cuts, and I am so glad that you are bringing those programs back." Teaching Programming We were able to teach young children how to program, which is essential, because in the future the majority of jobs that we have now will be taken by robots, and it will be our job to program and build those robots. By teaching children how to program at a young age, we were helping them develop an interest in programming and computer science which will help them in the future.
It was amazing to see how fast Mateo and Daisy were able to pick up programming. Daisy is only 5 years old and she was able to correctly program the robot to move forward and backwards. When we looked around, we saw children of all ages with robots all around us collaborating, laughing, programming, and driving robots. It was a sight that filled us with happiness because that is what the future looks like, and we have a key part in helping young girls and boys find a love for STEM, programming, computer science, and technology so that our future is in good hands. STEM Fair The students from the other schools were usually bored and using electronics while waiting for their next event. We were able to grab the attention of those children so they would be exploring science instead of using electronics.
The parents who came to our fair were overjoyed that their children had a chance to experience STEM, and that they were using their time between events to enrich their minds. The coaches who came were also amazed at what we were doing. Most of them are science teachers, who had never seen a group of middle school girls who were impacting their community through science. Practically every teacher and coach wanted to keep in touch with us so that we could go directly to their school to impact their students and create a Girls Build LA club at their school. Most of the girls who came to our fair were nervous and scared to touch the mealworms, but after a while, they didn’t want to stop holding the beetles and worms! We have heard the saying that when one door closes many others open, and we had a clear example of this, when Mr. McNelis did not approve our fair, it opened the possibility of contacting the Science Olympiad organizer, Mr. Widdison. Festival of Light We had a table at our school wide Festival of Light celebration. We had some activities for children to participate in and it was our first event!
Parents just left their kids unattended, there were 3 kids who tried to eat the clay, they mixed the colors of clay when we told them not to, and some of them just did not understand what to do at all, even after we explained it to them countless times. It was a good way to test our patience and we believe that after this experience, we are more patient. We would do this again in a heartbeat, and we cannot wait to outreach at other events to impact our community at a greater level. |