Daisy Scouts are adorable. This troop of 16 girls was very excited to learn and participate in hands on activities. At this meeting in a rural mountain setting, I started off by telling the girls a bit about myself and why I was so interested in Engineering and Technology. I was sure to ask the girls what they thought engineering was and of course I got the standard "engineers drive a train" answers. I chose to focus on the fact that engineers and technologists are problem solvers who design, build, and test things that make life better or easier. Remembering that Daisy Scouts are in Kindergarten and First Grade I tried to keep it pretty basic but I did tell the girls that I loved being creative and enjoyed subjects like art and music that helped foster creativity and problem solving. So many students are told that they can only be engineers if they love math and science. Of course that is helpful but not necessary. I told the girls that I have designed things like cars, airplanes, rockets, bridges, websites, etc. The girls seemed amazed and said things like "wow," "I love being creative too," and best yet, "I want to be just like you when I grow up." After our introduction, I showed the girls items that the Cube had printed. I told them a bit about the printing material and how the printer works. In order for the girls to better understand how the printer builds up the material in layers to form an object, I had the girls used Play-doh to make coil pots. To show the girls how the printer melts the plastic, I used a glue gun.
I then showed the girls the necklace I had made. I wanted the girls to understand how important design and sketching can be to the result of a finished product so I showed the girls how I first drew the necklace on paper, second, made a 3D model in the computer, and last printed out the charm and assembled the necklace to look exactly like my sketch. I had pre-printed 16 charms and had made each girl a pocket sketch book that they could take with them and the girls used those to draw out their necklace designs and color them according to the color beads they wanted to use. After the sketches were done, the girls assembled the necklaces they designed. The day after the meeting, I was walking through town and I passed two girls on the sidewalk who waved and showed me that they were wearing their necklaces. I was so excited that the girls had had so much fun at the meeting.
