Success Story  

6/29/2018 

Patrice Thompson

“From Classroom Robotics to Technology Conference”   

During the school year at Maupin Elementary, I had the privilege of leading 60 students into EV3 Lego Curriculum and it was awesome! To see the students grow in curiosity, effort, and team work was the motivation I needed as a brand new agent to plan strategically for the future.

On May 19, 2018 I was able to successfully transport 3 of my Maupin 4-Her’s to an all girls’ technology Conference entitled “Tech Savvy” that was organized by Kentucky State University, AAUW (American Association for University Women), and TMMK (Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky INC.). I knew it would be so important to take what students I could to this conference because It would build upon what they were already learning in our 4-H sessions and encourage them to learn more about technology. TechSavvy was presented to girls rising into middle school through the ninth grade. This conference’s goal was to introduce participants to degree and career options in STEM by providing hands-on workshops as well as presentations. Not only was I able to bring my 3 Maupin 4-Hers but I was also able to collaborate with my fellow 4-H Agent, Louis Milligan, to present “Dirty Evidence” a biotechnology work-shop to 31 out of the 60 girls who attended the conference.   

In "Dirty Evidence" workshop, participants learned that scientific methods are used by "criminologists" to get clues from a crime scene and in most crimes people leave behind fingerprints. They also learned about the history of fingerprint retrieval from crime scenes as well as the 3 major finger printing patterns. Each group of participants was givena  kit with items that had fignerprints on them and materials such as a duster and magnifying glasses to help them find and determine the fingerprint print pattern collected.

The following Monday at our club meeting, my “tech savvygirls” expressed to me how much fun the conference was, although upon arrivalat the conference they were showing a little timidity, they boasted amongsttheir peers in class about their participation. One participant expressed to mehow she, after the conference, had taken an interest in exploring careers intechnology and science. This conference although just for one day was verypivotal for my Maupin girls. They were able to get out of their comfort zoneand have a seed planted in their lives that will lead to a career path in technology.