Tech Trek
Through hands-on problem solving and encounters with women role models in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), AAUW Tech Trek helps girls see their futures while having nonstop fun. This one-week summer camp is backed by AAUW’s research and designed to make STEM fields exciting and accessible to girls in middle school — the age when girls’ participation in these fields statistically drops. For many girls, the weeklong camp sparks their curiosity and places them on a path toward success.
The Engineer’s Council is proud to partner with the San Fernando Valley Chapter of AAUW to provide scholarships to assist middle school girls in participating in this incredible opportunity.
Math Counts
The MATH COUNTS Competition Series is a national program that provides students the opportunity to compete in live, in-person contests against and alongside their peers. Created in 1983, it is the longest-running MATH COUNTS program and is open to all sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students.
The Competition Series has 4 levels of competition – school, chapter, state and national. Each level of competition is comprised of 4 rounds – Sprint, Target, Team and Countdown Round.
Between 1 and 10 students from each school advance to the local Chapter Competition, which takes place in February.
Each school can send a team of 4 students, plus up to 6 individual competitors. All chapter competitors—whether they are team members or individuals—participate in the individual rounds of the competition; then just the 4 team members participate in the team round. Schools also can opt to send just a few individual competitors, rather than forming a full team. Over 500 Chapter Competitions take place across the country.
The Engineers’ Council is a proud sponsor of the Chapter Competition held at California State University, Northridge.
Robotics
FIRST Robotics Competition the ultimate Sport for the Mind. High-school student participants call it “the hardest fun you’ll ever have.”
Under strict rules, limited resources, and an intense six-week time limit, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team “brand,” hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors. It’s as close to real-world engineering as a student can get. Volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team. Each season ends with an exciting FIRST Championship.
The Engineers’ Council sponsors teams from area schools in support of the annual FIRST competitions.
College Of Taccola
The College of Taccola is an Engineers’ Guild that participates at festivals like Renaissance and Western fairs. In the context of the fair or festival, the College of Taccola reenacts a group of itinerant engineers, roaming the country performing acts of engineering. Through the use of participatory exhibits such as levers, block and tackle pulleys, and other examples of Archimedes’ six simple machines, visitors, especially children, learn the basics of Mechanical Advantage.
The College of Taccola is named for Mariano di Jacopo detto il Taccola (1381-1453). Taccola’s work was widely studied and copied by later Renaissance engineers and artists, among them Francesco di Giorgio and Leonardo da Vinci.
The members of Taccola are people who don’t limit their engineering problem solving skills to weekdays from 9 to 5. They are always wearing their “engineering caps” and believe that if more people think like engineers, then maybe some of the world’s problems can get solved. And the trick to getting people to think like engineers is to train them young. Taccola’s Mission Statement is: Make STEM understanding more accessible by viewing it through the lens of Elizabethan techniques.