Outreach

A Legacy of K-12 Outreach

SWE created a professional guidance and education committee in 1952 to encourage high school girls to consider engineering as a career. Over the decades the Society’s outreach programming has expanded, introducing school-aged girls to engineering concepts and capturing their attention with engaging hands-on, problem-solving activities.

Explore SWE's Legacy Below

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In the late 1950s and 1960s, SWE sections’ early outreach efforts primarily focused on career information sessions for high school girls and presenting awards to girls at science fairs.

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A poster advertises an informational session for high school girls hosted by the SWE Pittsburgh Section.
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SWE presented high school senior Patricia Vickers with a $100 savings bond during the 1962 National Science Fair–International for her exhibit on radiocarbon dating.

In the 1970s and 1980s, SWE members began introducing engineering to girls in elementary school, recognizing that children develop career interests and aspirations early in life.

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SWE Boston Section members wrote, illustrated, and published Terry’s Trip, a coloring book about a girl visiting a toy factory with her engineer aunt.
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Girl Scouts Brownies participate in a sleepover science event at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, hosted by the SWE San Francisco State University Student Section in 1988.

Funded by a grant from NASA, SWE’s Higher Education Outreach Program, or HEOP, in the late 1980s and 1990s provided scholarships to girls from historically underrepresented communities to attend NASA space camps and summer STEM programs at universities.

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High school recipients of SWE’s 2001 scholarships to NASA Space Camp pose in front of a shuttle.
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Students created a scrapbook to remember their experiences at the SWE Santa Clara Valley Section’s 1992 HEOP summer camp at Stanford University.

SWE and its sections increasingly rely on hands-on projects to teach creative problem-solving skills.

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Middle school girls take apart laptops, video game guitars, and printers during a “Wow! That’s Engineering!” day hosted by the Boston Section in 2011. SWE launched its “Wow!” and “Develop. Design, Discover.” programs in 2006, providing curriculum and program development grants to help sections host local K-12 outreach outreach events.
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Students show off their wind power station projects at SWE's "Invent It. Build It." outreach event at WE18 in Minneapolis. SWE introduced its signature outreach event at its annual conference in 2010.
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A Girl Scout holds her egg before a 20-foot drop during the SWE Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute section’s Exploring Engineering Day in 2010.

Launched in 2015, the SWENext program engages pre-college students with clubs, engineering challenges, leadership academies, awards, and information for adult advocates and influencers.

SWENext DesignLab
A student gives a poster presentation on the use of kelp farms to improve beach health during a 2018 SWENext DesignLab event in Providence, Rhode Island.
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SWE released the first issue of its comic book, Constance & Nano: Engineering Adventure!, in 2016 to introduce girls to engineering in a fun and engaging way.
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SWENext High School Leadership Academy participants gather during the WE18 annual conference in Minneapolis.