I run a yearly VCR tear-apart session for middle school girls. The girls usually come in with a "this is going to be boring" and at the end of an hour they don't want to leave. VCRs are good because it is relatively easy to get them (they are always breaking down) and kids know what they are.
We begin by talking about the various components (all girls are able to identify resistors, capacitors, diodes, ICs and transistors) and run mini-experiments while they are tearing them apart. They usually want to take some of the parts home with them.
I provide a sheet for each of them with the above components taped onto it, with descriptions of each part. I insert it into an overhead holder and then they can keep it.
Many of these girls have never handled a screwdriver or pliers -- I think it is a good experience for them.
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Catherine Cetrangolo
Engineering Research Center
for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Email: cetra@engr.wisc.edu
ERCPAM
ERC staff member Catherine Cetrangolo with a group of
fourth graders at DeForest Elementary School..
Photo by Perry Sandstrom.
The VCR tear-apart was a demo workshop as part of the Expanding Your Horizons Program (at UW Madison, contact: Bonnie Schmidt schmidt@engr.wisc.edu).
Catherine Cetrangolo and Perry Sandstrom are responsible for the VCR workshop.
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On a scale of 1 (low) to 7 (high)
1st group:
1 student indicated #3
9 students indicated #7
group leader indicated #7
2nd group
1 student indicated #6
7 students indicated #7
group leader indicated #7
Below are comments from the group leaders:
"hands-on taking apart VCR was excellent"
"taking apart a VCR was so much fun and none of us expected it!"
In the section "What did you like about this conference," four girls wrote, "Taking VCRs apart."
During the course of our industrial interactions, our experience has shown that there are not enough professional people trained in the type of cross-disciplinary research necessary to ensure the advancement of plasma-aided manufacturing. Therefore, in the course of activities, each research area exposes graduate and undergraduate students to the ERC concept of a systems approach to research. Our cross-disciplinary research has already affected major changes in the nature of plasma-aided manufacturing research and education--many of which could not have been achieved without the ERC's presence.
We are concerned that engineers in industry today are not aware of the latest advances in the field and that more of our youth, particularly women and minorities, need to be encouraged to enter engineering fields. Therefore, we have developed an education and outreach program to expose elementary, middle and high school students to science, engineering and plasma-aided manufacturing. In addition, several outreach programs have been implemented to actively recruit a more diverse group of undergraduates from other educational institutions.