Kristen Monroe mentors the scouts in building the circuit boards. LOUISE KRAFFT
The Baltimore-Washington Section of the Society of Women Engineers, along with Booz Allen Hamilton’s African American Forum, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (Northern Virginia Alumnae Chapter and Omicron Rho Chapter), National Society of Black Engineers, and Booz Allen’s Woman Forum presented “Making it Better” Badge Day at Mount Vernon High School on Saturday, Jan. 28. Together, each organization helped more than 70 Girl Scouts earn the engineer badge by performing seven hands-on fun experiments that teach basic engineering concepts. Activities included civil, mechanics, electrical and chemical engineering. During the morning activities, five stations were set up in the school’s cafeteria for the scouts to rotate through. Label Checking involved discerning what ingredients/vitamins were listed on the box, can and jar labels. The Moving Parts station involved motion and freeing up the motion with spheres, as in ball bearings. The girls worked with coffee cans, a ping-pong paddle, round marbles and flat marbles. The third station was Making Connections, making a series circuit then a parallel circuit. The fourth station involved PH; the scouts used PH strips on water, borax, vinegar, lemon juice, soda, bleach and dish soap. Station five was taking the girls back to Play-Doh, Making a Polymer.