Graduate Students host Girl Scout Engineering Day

Young participants explore the many different fields of biomedical engineering

On April 6th, Cornell’s Graduate Chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) hosted its annual Spring Girl Scout Engineering Day (GSED). This event was focused on introducing girl scouts from 2nd to 8th grade to biomedical engineering career and research opportunities. Meinig School graduate students led a variety of hands-on-activities with the help of volunteers from Cornell’s Engineering Graduate Student Association (EGSA). These activities allowed the girl scouts to explore the many different fields of biomedical engineering from optics and biomedical imaging to medical device design.

In the activity “Build a Pumping Heart”, girls built their own model of a pumping heart and explored how engineers can build mechanical systems to help people whose hearts need assistance pumping. In the activity “Glow-in-the-Dark Brains”, girl scouts performed their own brain surgeries on model brains and learned about commonly used medical imaging techniques such as PET Scans. Through activities like these and many others, girls were able to see the many ways engineering is used to benefit human health.

This year’s spring event extended into two half-day sessions due to the high number of registrants reaching over 150 girl scouts, attesting to the reputation this event has amongst the community. Thanks to Cornell BMES and this year’s contribution from EGSA, this event was free to attend for all scouts.