Workshops Offered During 2020 Girls STEM Summer Camp, Eureka!
- In summer of 2020, this camp ran virtually from July 6th to July 31st from 9:00 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- STEM sessions were from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and 10:30 to 12:00 p.m. on Thursdays.
- Personal Development and Sport, Health and Wellness activities took place daily.
- Fridays were designated for career exploration.
- Each workshop session was attended by 34 girls with a number of Drexel facilitators and Girls inc. coordinators.
- Workshops took place via Zoom.
Photos from 2020 Workshops
2020 Workshops Offered
Week One: Kitchen Science
Introduction to Cookies
Instructor: Alissa Sperling, Lynda Lam, and Kristal Marcano (with Shideh Amiri, Bridget Milorey, Abdulaziz Boalbanat, Hazem Youssef, Sarah Kane, Kim Spina and Simi Hoque)
In this workshop, participants were given a brief introduction to gluten and its role in baking. They participated in a gluten lab using bread flour, all purpose flour, measuring cups, water, and a scale. They made dough, weighed it, performed a data analysis and shared their results.
The Perfect Cookie Experiment
Instructor: Hazem Youssef, Alissa Sperling, and Kyle Benecker (with Shideh Amiri, Sarah Kane, Bridget Milorey, Abdulaziz Boalbanat, Kristal Marcano, Simi Hoque and Kim Spina)
In this workshop, participants described their ideal chocolate chip cookie, were presented with a lesson on kitchen chemistry and experimentation, and then were put into breakout groups for cookie baking! After the students were done baking their cookies, they shared their results as a group.
Guest Speaker, Dr. Rose Trout and Cookie Share
Instructor: Alissa Sperling and Sarah Kane (with Bridget Milorey, Abdulaziz Boalbanat, Hazem Youssef, Simi Hoque and Kim Spina)
Participants were presented with an engaging guest lecture from Dr. Rose Trout, Director of the Culinary Arts and Food Science Program and Assistant Clinical Professor at Drexel and You Tube cooking star! After the lecture, the students shared their cookie recipes with each other.
Week Two: Robotics
Introduction to the Sphero Bot
Instructor: Abdulaziz Boalbanat (with Alissa Sperling, Sarah Kane, Shideh Amiri, Hazem Youssef, Lynda Lam, Simi Hoque, and Kim Spina)
Participants were taught about coding and computer basics and were introduced to algorithms and robotics. They completed an exercise in drag and drop coding, worked on a simple text programming "syntax exercise." Participants also practiced programming from scratch, their Sphere Bots with a partner.
Coding with Sphere by Experience Level
Instructor: Kristal Marcano, Gabriel Grajewski, Abdulaziz Boalbanat (with Hazem Youssef, Alissa Sperling, Sarah Kane, Simi Hoque, Bridget Milorey, Lynda Lam, and Kim Spina)
Participants were introduced to Drexel student facilitators leading different levels of challenge breakout rooms. They were placed in three different groups depending on their knowledge of coding: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced. The students worked together to program their Sphere bots and shared their results with each other at the end of the day.
Sphero Bot Tik Tok Challenge
Instructor: Sarah Kane (with Alissa Sperling, Kristal Marcano, Abdulaziz Boalbanat, Hazem Youssef, Simi Hoque, Lynda Lam, and Kim Spina)
Participants were challenged to film a Tik Tok style video with their Sphere bots. After filming their videos, they shared them with facilitators and fellow campers.
Week Three: Forensic Science
Introduction to Forensics
Instructor: Asa Lewis (with Alissa Sperling, Sarah Kane, Kristal Marcano, Shideh Amiri, Hazem Youssef, Lynda Lam, Bridget Milorey, Kyle Benecker, Abdulaziz Boalbanat, Kim Spina, and Simi Hoque)
Participants were presented with a video on forensics which followed with a discussion. The lead facilitator presented a lesson on the "Innocence Project" and the campers discussed and explored various social justice cases and shared their findings. The campers participated in a blood typing activity in breakout rooms.
Forensic Skills Breakout Sessions
Instructor: Gabriel Grajewski, Asa Lewis, Kyle Benecker, Alissa Sperling, Kristal Marcano, Bridget Milorey (with Lynda Lam, Abdulaziz Boalbanat, Hazem Youssef, Sarah Kane, Simi Hoque, and Kim Spina)
Participants gathered their material to make fake blood! They received a presentation on non-Newtonian fluids and then were put in breakout rooms and given presentations on fingerprinting, DNA, interviewing versus interrogating, glass shattering, and blood spatter. They participated in a fingerprint activity and then participants were presented with a crime they needed to solve the following day: President Fry's office was broken into and his designer glasses were stolen.
Forensics Mystery Lab Escape Room
Instructor: Gabriel Grajewski and Bridget Milorey (with Abdulaziz Boalbanat, Alissa Sperling, Kristal Marcano, Sarah Kane, Asa Lewis, Lynda Lam, Kyle Benecker, Kim Spina, and Simi Hoque)
During this challenge, students had to look at the evidence and interview the suspects to find out who broke into President Fry's office and stole his glasses! They successfully solved the crime!
Week Four: Construction
Introduction to Bridges
Instructor: Chris Fiori (with Kathleen Short, Kim Spina, Simi Hoque, Kristal Marcano, Hazem Youssef, and Sarah Kane)
Students received an introduction to the various types of bridges and were taught the physics of bridges including tensions, external loads, and the basics of applied forces. The students participated in a group discussion on the importance of bridges. During this discussion, participants found out that the bridges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey received a grade of D+ from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Bridge Design: Part I
Instructor: Chris Fiori and Kathleen Short (with Kim Spina, Sarah Kane, Kristal Marcano, Hazem Youssef, and Simi Hoque)
Students were introduced to the bridge design software, Bridge Designer, to start designing their own truss bridge, crossing a river valley, using steel members of two varieties. In designing their bridges, the students had to account for cost and safety.
Bridge Design: Part 2
Instructor: Chris Fiori and Kathleen Short (with Kim Spina, Alissa Sperling, Kristal Marcano, Simi Hoque, and Sarah Kane)
During the last day of camp, the students were put in break out groups to design and build bridges that were cost effective and that would not fail. They all succeeded!