YWIB-Chicago: Niña Cientificas – Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, October 7, 2023

On October 7, 2023, YWIB-Chicago celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month by hosting a special event in collaboration with the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois. The goal of the event was to inspire children by revealing the scientific principles underlying their everyday experiences. Dr. Amanda Maldonado set the stage for the day, defining STEM and introducing our distinguished lineup of speakers. YWIB-Chicago representatives directed experiments designed to give a hands-on understanding of key scientific concepts. These women were not only experts in their fields but also passionate educators. Before each activity, they briefly shared their educational backgrounds and current career paths, offering a comprehensive glimpse into the diverse academic and professional avenues available within STEM.

For their first experiment, the scouts learned about the heart, how it pumps blood, and why it's so essential for our bodies to function. They then got to build their own pumping heart. The children learned about magnetism, atoms, and electrons during the second experiment by making magnetic slime. Their third experiment was extracting DNA from strawberries to discover more about DNA and how genes work. The labs ended with an exciting competition based on engineering principles as the kids attempted to build tall structures out of paper. The hands-on activities helped them understand the concepts deeper and taught them that STEM is all around us and can be very fun!

To wrap up the event, Dr. Maldonado explained what educational and career paths the children could pursue based on the activity they enjoyed most. Career options included working in clinical care, regulatory affairs, engineering, business, and more. The day concluded with a pizza party, and each child earned an exclusive Girl Scouts nina cientificas (girl scientist) patch!

Linda Kim