One of the EiE staff’s favorite classroom engineering moments from our video entry to the NSF 2016 Video Showcase is when young engineer Max says to his classmate Charley, “Before this, I didn’t know Charley was a genius about this topic!” Charley responds, “I didn’t know I could even say that much or learn that much,” to the well-deserved compliment. This vignette perfectly illustrates one of the engineering habits of mind we hope all EiE learners develop: to see themselves as engineers and as problem solvers. In addition to engaging students like Charley and Max in engineering activities, we’ve learned that exposing them to positive role models they can identify with can also help accomplish this goal. So, in honor of Women’s History Month, we hope you’ll share these role models to inspire your own “genius” moments.

Guest blogger Martha Davis is EiE’s multimedia project manager.

Over the past three years, with support from Cognizant, EiE has been developing an online library of short videos. This library includes a set of “EiE Classroom Videos,” which feature candid footage of skilled teachers facilitating the four lessons in an EiE unit. 

To shoot these videos, I’ve been spending lots of time in elementary school classrooms. At first, it’s like visiting another country. There are new traditions and new words getting thrown around and you feel like an outsider. But after a couple of hours you’re in the swing of things and you’re absorbing some of this culture. After a day or two, you’re singing the songs and pulling out your lunch right along with all of the other kids in the class. Before you know it, you’ve adopted all of their classroom culture.