My senior project proposal was "How can we interest children in pursuing careers in the STEM fields?". A very simple idea culminated into a very involved and educational project, where Jonathan, Henry, and myself designed and taught 2, 3 hour courses to a group of 10 - 12 year olds. The group turned out to be roughly 10 - 12 kids who were all subject to activities revolving around Chemistry, Computer Programming, and Civil Engineering.
The first day was split into 2 activities, the first activity, led by Jonathan, and the second led by me. The first activity was an intro the Arduino micro-controller and a basic introduction to computer science. We had the kids coding and then controlling lights with buttons and light sensors, some of them going above and beyond by coding sound receptors as triggers for the lights. The second activity included bridge building with an assortment of gum drops and toothpicks over a designated distance and weight in an attempt to simulate real life scenarios and building designs in the field of civil engineering. We also gave out a limited selection of toothpicks and gumdrops to choose from, which led a stark challenge that was surmounted by these very bright children.
The second day was a lot more involved by us as the instructors. In an attempt to interest the kids in the fields of chemistry, we designed, borrowed and then performed a plethora of experiments while detailing the various mechanics in place. We did experiments that detailed catalyst reactions, exothermic reactions, spontaneous reactions, pressure, density, you name it. This was easily the most fun demonstration from the entire course, where we had our group of kids saying wow as a catalyst reaction shot thick streams of warm and colorful bubbles into the air.