Energized Enigma [electrical engineering education]

A simple electrical game built by seventh and eighth grade girls attending a summer day camp program at Kettering University (USA) is described. The day camp involved 24 girls in each of its one-week sections. About half of the 48 girls were members of an ethnic minority. The girls met with the three female faculty members for a total of three hours, divided into a two-hour and a one-hour session. Each girl constructed an Energized Enigma, a simple carnival-type game of chance, that they took home with them at the end of the day. The game design intentionally incorporates a number of different types of electrical and mechanical connections, has an arts and crafts component, and is decidedly feminine in nature, using a flower and bumblebee motif Observations on the different teaching styles used by each faculty member with her group of girls are included.