Newswise — Gabrielle Rochino draws like an artist, dreams like an entrepreneur, calculates like an engineer and thinks like a girl.
That’s a winning combination for the 21-year-old mechanical engineering student at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey, who is the heart and brains behind (and founder and CEO of) “Think Like a Girl: Engineering Kits.”
Designed to teach girls ages six through 12 and up the fundamentals of engineering in an understandable and fun fashion, the kits center on youthful Gaby Gadget, who is central to activities and story lines that cross various disciplines.
“Think Like a Girl: Engineering Kits are packages that encourage young girls to learn about engineering fundamentals through activities geared toward girls’ interests,” said Rochino, who conceived of the idea during an Entrepreneurship and Innovation class in the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering. She won first place in Rowan’s William G. Rohrer College of Business 2015 Elevator Pitch Competition out of more than 85 applicants.
The Cherry Hill, New Jersey, resident is developing Think Like a Girl with five classmates who partner with her in engineering clinics on Tuesdays and Thursdays and during added time outside of the classroom and lab.
Team members are:• Alexis Basantis, 20, a junior mechanical engineering major from Medford Lakes, New Jersey• Megan DeGeorge, 21, a senior mechanical engineering major from East Greenwich Township, New Jersey• Samantha Mann, 21, a senior civil and environmental engineering major from Lumberton, New Jersey• Samantha Winterburn, 21, a senior chemical engineering major from Vineland, New Jersey• India Woodruff, 20, a senior civil and environmental engineering major from Mantua Township, New Jersey
Each of the kits the all-female team is developing will include an engineering activity with supplied components; a Gadget Guide story that focuses on the activity while telling a tale and applying the engineering lessons to real-world situations; a Real Woman Engineer Trading Card; a Sustainability Fact Card; a small Design Project; and a “Sur-Prize,” a small prize relating to the kit’s theme. All of the kit’s packing materials are eco-friendly and biodegradable.
“Projects such as this are beneficial entrepreneurial experiences for students that can be offered through the engineering clinics in the spirit of benefactor and entrepreneur Henry M. Rowan. At the same time, these women address the need to increase diversity of prospective within the engineering profession, by engaging young girls with their product in a fun way, geared toward them,” said Dr. Jennifer Kadlowec, department head and professor of Mechanical Engineering.
The Rowan University Innovation Venture Fund awarded the team $5,000 to work on market research, prototype development business development. The students presently are writing a business plan with help from a staff member from the Rohrer College of Business and from a recent MBA graduate. They have attended the 2015 CEO National Conference in Kansas City to pitch their idea, will participate in the InnovateHER competition at the Waterfront Tech Center in Camden in December and will compete in the Rohrer College of Business 2016 Business Plan Competition in April. They have conducted focus groups in New Jersey and Philadelphia, with schools and technology incubators. So far, the team is collaborating with The Scientista Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences for mentorship to spread awareness of Think Like a Girl.
DeGeorge acknowledged that kits for girls exist, but none quite like Think Like a Girl’s. “This isn’t pink Legos,” she said. “We look at the main reasons why girls aren’t entering engineering -- including a lack of female role models and misconceptions about what it is to be an engineer -- and we address them. We connect girls to the real world of engineering and show them how engineering applications can be used in real life.”
“We also did a lot of research on the way girls learn and how they enjoy learning in certain ways, like storytelling and role playing,” Basantis said.
Added Rochino, “We based a lot of R&D on popular girls’ toys and why girls like them and incorporated engineering into that, as opposed to taking existing toys and making them pink.”
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