Biomedical learning experiences for middle school girls sponsored by the Kansas state university student chapter of the IEEE EMBS

Learning experiences for middle school girls are an effective means to steer young women toward secondary engineering curricula that they might not have otherwise considered. Sponsorship of such experiences by a collegiate student group is worthwhile, as it gives the group common purpose and places college students in a position to mentor these young women. This paper addresses learning experiences in different areas of bio-medical engineering offered to middle school girls in November 2008 via a day-long workshop entitled ldquoEngineering The Body.rdquo The Kansas State University (KSU) Student Chapter of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) worked with the KSU Women in Engineering and Science Program (WESP) to design and sponsor these experiences, which addressed the areas of joint mechanics, electrocardiograms, membrane transport, computer mouse design, and audio filters for cochlear implants. Fifty five middle-school girls participated in this event, affirming the notion that biomedical engineering appeals to young women and that early education and recruitment efforts have the potential to expand the biomedical engineering talent pool.

I. INTRODUCTION

Group activities with a service-learning component can be important to the health of a collegiate student organization, as they promote a shared sense of achievement and attract purpose-driven students [1]–[4]. IEEE EMBS student chapters have found service projects to be effective for recruitment and retention of chapter members while enhancing students' biomedical engineering toolsets [5]–[7]. Given the gender diversity in the KSU Student Chapter of the IEEE EMBS [6], [8], chapter members agreed that service projects sponsored by the organization could play a meaningful role in the recruitment of female students into the various quantitative science and engineering degree programs represented by the chapter members. The KSU EMBS student chapter therefore collaborated with the KSU WESP program through the Girls Researching Our World (GROW) initiative [9] to devise learning experiences for junior high girls that would elevate their interest in biomedical engineering and increase the likelihood that they would pursue collegiate science and engineering degrees. This approach is consistent with other outreach efforts that promote biomedical engineering interests in young students [10]–[12].