The Waterloo Engineering Outreach classroom seesaws from raucous laughter to rapt concentration as 20 fourth-grade students huddle in groups around their tabletop stacked with popsicle sticks, cardboard, cups, and sticky tape. For the next 45 minutes, groups of girls and boys design, test, and redesign a bridge for their robotic Cubelets to cross, inadvertently using the engineering design process. They’ve just returned from touring the RoboHub, where they peppered their guide with robot questions, putting Tony Stark to shame. Next, they quiz two graduate students working on robotic arms in a research lab—How does it know what to do? Will it punch you in the face if you program it to? They are astounded at the Student Design Centre, where any student can join a design team and build rockets, cars, or concrete canoes. For some, it will be the beginning of a lifelong love of engineering, and becoming a Waterloo Engineering student will be a goal they work towards for the next eight years. For others, this half-day on campus will ignite their imaginations as to what their future selves can be—and it now includes higher education. This is the objective. To give every fourth-grade student in the Waterloo Region District School Board a chance to visit a world-class engineering school, arousing their curiosity in STEM, which ultimately could improve high school graduation rates at absolutely no cost to the student or the schools. It is community student outreach at its most equitable.
From the Judges
This program extended engineering education to younger audiences in an equitable fashion ensuring that everyone is able to participate in this data-driven strategy to increase DEI in STEM. The judges also enjoyed the comment submitted by a fourth-grade student who asked "Will it punch you in the face if you program it to?"
