Effective Components of Educational Outreach in Tribology as a Career Exploration Conference Workshop for Sixth Grade Girls

The objective of this paper is to explore the essential components that constitute hands-on outreach activities and related discussions suitable for sixth grade girls that are effective enough to generate interest in associated STEM fields. These activities were conducted during an educational outreach workshop on tribology, as part of an annual one day science outreach program at Texas A&M University, titled “Expanding Your Horizons (EYH),” which is a career exploration conference for sixth grade female students from the neighboring community. Both the technical aspects of these activities as well as the non-technical, but significant influencing aspects that help generate a sustained interest in associated STEM fields are examined. Following the workshop, it was observed that the interactive hands-on activities that were of a friendly competitive nature with their peers as well as those involving competing friendly teams were especially well received by the sixth graders, besides helping to solidify concept clarity. The lessons learned from these activities are expected to help enhance similar future outreach workshops catering to middle school girls of a similar age bracket who have a specific knowledge level based on their current sixth grade science curriculum.