GLAM GAMES Uses Common—and Not-So-Common—Materials to Introduce High School Girls to Materials Science

"We get materials out there, and make people know what it is, and that it's an option, and that it's fun. It's so much fun!" – MatSE Assistant Professor, Jessica Krogstad

June 28, 2018

A GLAM camper pours polmer into a container to make a mold.
A GLAM camper pours polmer into a container to make a mold.

Sweet, yummy chocolate. What girl doesn't crave that? The ubiquitous polymers. Wild and wacky non-Newtonian fluids. Biomaterials. Composites. Crystals. These are just some of the materials 16 girls dabbled in during GLAM (Girls Learn About Materials) GAMES (Girls’ Adventures in Math, Engineering, and Science) camp from June 17–23, 2018. Plus, a design project allowed the young women to explore the characteristics of a commonplace, everyday material, such as cardboard, malleable metal (tin foil), tape, or plastic, to come up with a use that's different from how it’s normally used. All of these activities were designed to give the girls a glimpse into what materials engineering is and what a materials engineer does.

In her 4th year running GLAM GAMES, Material Science and Engineering (MatSE) Assistant Professor Jessica Krogstad reports that the 16 girls who participated in 2018 were mostly from the Chicago area. However, one camper hailed from Iowa, one from Michigan, and one came all the way from Istanbul, Turkey.

Krogstad indicates that only a handful of campers who come to GLAM year-in, year-out really know what materials engineers do; the vast majority have no idea. “We get a lot of campers who kind of like chemistry, and kind of like physics, and kind of like engineering, but aren't sure which direction to go. But this sounds like it might be some sort of combination of all that. And it really is. It's kind of the perfect mix of all those different things.”

A GLAM camper prepares the object she's going to  replicate by making a mold.
A GLAM camper prepares the object she's going to replicate by making a mold.

So one goal of the camp is to give the GLAM participants perspective as to what an actual materials engineer might do via a week-long design project.

“So it's really difficult to describe what a materials engineer does,” Krogstad explains, “because there's such a diversity of application spaces that they work in that it's no one thing. This gives them the ability to explore what they might actually do in a job on their own.”

Krogstad says GLAM didn’t have a design project when she took charge of it four years ago. It's something she and her team have integrated into the camp to give it “more cohesiveness.” It was also designed to give the campers “more ownership of their learning and to be able to apply it directly to their own creative thinking.”

Two high schooers work on their design project with their material: saran wrap.
Two high schooers work on their design project with their material: saran wrap.

One thing that was different about the camp this year was the changes they made to the project. The idea was for the girls to come up with a novel application of an everyday material: either a paper-based product; a malleable metal, like aluminum foil or paper clips; tape; or plastics, like milk jugs and saran wrap—all of these come out of the recycle bin or they're things one can buy easily in the store. Then, at the end of the week, they presented their designs to visitors at a poster session.

A GLAM participant uses a pipette during the biomaterials session.
A GLAM participant uses a pipette during the biomaterials session.

Indicating that the design project has always been very popular with students in the past, Krogstad reports that they’re also doing a study in order to understand how it “improves [the campers’] confidence and their understanding of the material in camp.” The study also involves comparisons to the design projects some of the other camps do in different ways.

What is it that the campers were to design? “It's up to them,” Krogstad says. The goal was to give them materials they're very familiar with, so they're also familiar with how the material is usually used. She gives the example of cardboard, which is pretty much always used as a box. “Are there other things you can do with the box to solve a different problem?” she asks. “So we kind of put that on the teams to come up with a need or a problem that could be addressed by the properties that are discovered from the materials.”

First, the girls performed various tests on a number of materials at different stations the GLAM team had set up for testing. These were to help the girls come up with other ways a material, such as cardboard, might be used—ways that were different from how they’ve seen it used before.

A lab assistant teaches a GLAM camper how to use a piece of equipment during the biomaterials session.
A lab assistant teaches a GLAM camper how to use a piece of equipment during the biomaterials session.

She reports that as a result of the testing, for instance, “The plastic team was really surprised by how strong the plastic bags were in some configurations, but then they were able to break them in other configurations. So they're learning about the design of the materials and why they're used and made the way they currently are for current applications, but also coming up with new insight they can use for their final, novel application space.”

Why would Krogstad and her team take a break from their research to do a camp for high schoolers? Krogstad says she had done outreach activities similar to this when she was in high school which introduced her to materials science, so she took on GLAM to pay it forward.

Jessica Krogstad chats with GLAM campers working on their design project.
Jessica Krogstad chats with GLAM campers working on their design project.

“I didn't know what materials science was. I was going to be an aerospace engineer or a chemical engineer, and I think I would've hated both of those. They wouldn't have been a good fit for me. And through outreach activities like this, I discovered what materials science and engineering was in high school, so the whole trajectory of my career is activities like this. So it's really important for me to be able to give students these sorts of opportunities.”

One participant who discovered what materials engineering is like at GLAM was Lily Mini, a rising junior at Lyons Township High School in Western Spring, Illinois. Mini shares why she came to GLAM this summer and the impact it had on her:

Lily Mini makes a tape creation during a project design segment.
Lily Mini makes a tape creation during a project design segment.

“I’m interested in engineering, and my dad went to the University of Illinois, so there’s legacy here,” she admits. She also participated because she’s a junior, and is starting to think about college.

“It’s becoming real, and I saw this opportunity, and I thought, ‘It’s a great opportunity to explore my options as a woman interested in engineering.’” She says it was also a great opportunity to “spend time on a campus that’s near and dear to my family.” She indicates that her impression of the campus was very positive:

“I could definitely see myself here,” she acknowledges, “and it’s nice to just spend time on campus rather than just going on an hour tour—actually getting to live here.”

Regarding materials engineering, she says, “I really like how inter-disciplinary it is. I like how connected to everything. I’m really interested in how materials connect to how we do things.”

While she indicates that she might be a little bit more interested in how to do things rather than the materials one does them with, she adds, “I think it’s a really important part of the process, and it’s allowing me to use the engineering process to explore different things, so I’m glad that I’ve taken this camp and had the opportunity to do it.”

GLAM camper Mayher Matharu shows off the work she did for  her team's design project, incorporating tape.
GLAM camper Mayher Matharu shows off the work she did for her team's design project, incorporating tape.

Another GLAM participant, Mayher Matharu, a rising junior at Evanston Township High School, shares why she participated in the camp.

While she says she really loves art and has loved it all of her life, she admits that, “Lately, science has been more and more interesting to me. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do with people who’ve been involved with science all their life or for a really long time. So I’m trying to get an idea of what science is like, and what life in science would be like.”

Matharu confesses that she has a bias against engineering that she’s “trying to eliminate.” Because her dad is an engineer, and because her family is Indian, she had initially rebelled against the three main career choices expected of Indian children: an engineer, a lawyer, or a doctor.

“My mom especially tried not to do that,” she confesses regarding the three career expectations, “but I was still aware of it, and so it made me push away from science and STEM.” Ironically, she has since realized that, “I do like it,” she admits. “I have a passion for it, and I have a talent that doesn’t just come from something that you learn, it comes from actually caring about something, and I realized that I care about this, and I enjoy doing science.”

A high school student presents her team's design project at the end-of-the-camp poster session.
A high school student presents her team's design project at the end-of-the-camp poster session.

She says she chose the GLAM camp because she loves ceramics. Discovering that there are ceramic engineers, “who look at everything from toilets to rockets and what’s in a rocket. ('Because you can’t just put plastic in there,' she explains. 'It’ll melt!') So ceramics is a big part of that and has a wide variety of applications. So material sciences is what ceramics engineering is under and it made me consider other materials that I use every day and how those can be applied.”


Story and photos by Elizabeth Innes, Communications Specialist, I-STEM Education Initiative.

More: 8-12 Outreach, GAMES, GLAM, MatSE, Summer Camp, Women in STEM, 2018

For additional I-STEM articles about other G.A.M.E.S. camps, see:

A camper learns about how to work with biomaterials during one of the camp's hands-on sessions.
A camper learns about how to work with biomaterials during one of the camp's hands-on sessions.





SOLIDarity EXperiences (SOLIDEX) through the Eyes of Children

What do children aged 11-13 in two countries think about solidarity?
Full Story

Students launch ASL STEM Vocabulary App Company

Students launch ASL STEM Vocabulary App Company
Full Story

Innovation, Inspiration on display at the Undergraduate Research Symposium

Undergraduate Research Week took place April 23-29, 2023, and culminated Thursday, April 27, 2023
Full Story

What would you like to see – 3D printers? Magnets? Solar-powered racing cars? Robobrawl?

March 28, 2023
EOH occurs Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Full Story

Tour of Illinois’ Materials Research Lab through I-MRSEC sparks Franklin students’ interest in Materials Science

March 1, 2023
Students from the Champaign middle school had a tour of the Material Research Laboratory (MRL) in early February.
Full Story

Nobel Project’s End-of-Year Zoom Bash Recaps Learning

February 1, 2022
The STEM Illinois Nobel Project held a special, end-of-the-year Zoom event celebrating its participating students’ achievements.
Full Story

It’s not magic, it’s physics

January 26, 2022
In Franklin STEAM Academy, Musical Magnetism program makes STEM fun, approachable.
Full Story

Program prepares STEM educators to teach all students

November 30, 2021
This summer, a group of educators gathered to learn about engaging STEM activities they can do with their students.
Full Story

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program

November 11, 2021
Undergrads get a taste of research through I-MRSEC’s REU program.
Full Story

Goldstein’s Renaissance Engineering Summer Camp

November 1, 2021
Goldstein’s Renaissance Engineering Summer Camp Incorporates Art, Design, Mechatronics, and Mentoring
Full Story

TechTogether Chicago to Redefine the Hacker Stereotype

July 10, 2021
New workshops that can help inspire students to pursue careers in technology..
Full Story

Aerospace Engineering Launches Virtual Summer Camps to Pique Students’ Interest in Aero.

July 2, 2021
Design an aircraft then watch it soar after launching it with a huge rubber band. Build a Mars lander to safely transport a real egg, then test the contraption by dropping it from a second story window.
Full Story

Undergrads Experience Materials Science Research Courtesy of the I-MRSEC REU

June 16, 2021
Ten undergraduate students are spending the summer of 2021 discovering what research is like.
Full Story

MatSE Afterschool Academy

MatSE Afterschool Academy

June 14, 2021
MatSE Afterschool Academy to Introduce Students to Materials Science and Beyond.
Full Story

Taylor Tucker Embraces Multidisciplinary Interest

Taylor Tucker Embraces Multidisciplinary Interest

June 14, 2021
Taylor Tucker Embraces Multidisciplinary Interest While Researching Task Collaboration.
Full Story

Exposes Franklin Middle Schoolers to Science, CS

What Studying Engineering at Illinois is Like?

May 25, 2021
NSBE’s Michaela Horn Exposes Franklin Middle Schoolers to Science, CS, and What Studying Engineering at Illinois is Like.
Full Story

Jenny Saves a Convertible.

Children’s-Book-Writing Duo/

May 19, 2021
Convertibles and Thunderstorms—Children’s-Book-Writing Duo on Their Way Thanks to Illinois Training and Encouragement from Mentors.
Full Story

Improve Learning in Engineering

Improve Learning in Engineering

May 17, 2021
Liebenberg Espouses Mini-Projects to Engage Students Emotionally, Improve Learning in Engineering.
Full Story

Joshua Whitely makes an adjustment to the 3D Bioprinter during the demo.

BIOE435 Capstone Projects

May 12, 2021
BIOE435 Capstone Projects - BIOE Seniors Use Knowledge/Skills to Problem Solve.
Full Story

Elani and Gonzalo shine a UV light on a rose that has absorbed a solution that has made it fluorescent.

Illinois Scientists Shine a (UV) Light on Fluorescence

May 7, 2021
What is fluorescence? What causes it?
Full Story

Joshua Whitely makes an adjustment to the 3D Bioprinter during the demo.

HackIllinois 2021 “Rekindled Connections” With The Tech Community

May 5, 2021
Annual student hackathon HackIllinois with the aim of developing projects on current problems facing society.
Full Story

A Shane Mayer-Gawlik image of the Bridger Aurora, part of his Night Skies photography collection exhibited at the Art-Science Festival.

The Art-Science Festival

April 26, 2021
Illinois Art-Science Festival: Illuminating the Universe...from the Quantum World to the Cosmos.
Full Story

Joshua Whitely makes an adjustment to the 3D Bioprinter during the demo.

Illinois Engineering Seniors Prepared to Change the World

April 22, 2021
Ready. Set. Go! Illinois Engineering Seniors Prepared to Change the World.
Full Story

HML 2021 Virtual Health

HML 2021 Virtual Health

April 19, 2021
Make-a-Thon Gives Citizen Scientists a Shot at Making Their Health-Related Innovations a Reality.
Full Story

I-MRSEC’s Music Video

I-MRSEC’s Music Video

April 7, 2021
I-MRSEC’s Music Video for EOH ’21 Plugs Graphene, 2D Materials
Full Story

Health Make-a-Thon Orientation

HML 2021 Health Orientation

March 30, 2021
HML 2021 Health Make-a-Thon Orientation Prepares Finalists for Competition.
Full Story

Andrea Perry shows Franklin students how to take apart the magnetic drawing board they received in their kit

Musical Magnetism

March 25, 2021
Musical Magnetism: Encouraging Franklin Middle Schoolers to Express Science Via the Arts.
Full Story

Carmen Paquette street performing.

Love of Science

March 9, 2021
Paquette Conveys Her Love of Science, Dance to Franklin STEAM Students Via Musical Magnetism.
Full Stroy

An Engineering Exploration participant exhibits the tower they built as part of the engineering challenge related to Civil Engineering

Engineering Exploration

March 2, 2021
SWE’s Engineering Exploration Outreach Lives Up to Its Name.

ChiS&E’s Family STEM Day

ChiS&E’s Family STEM Day

February 23, 2021
Helps Chicago Youngsters Progress Along the STEM Pipeline Toward Engineering.

Kathny Walsh

Kathy Walsh

February 17, 2021
On Her First Foray into STEAM, Kathy Walsh Acquaints Franklin Students with Microscopy, Haiku.

ChiS&E student

ChiS&E CPS Students

January 19, 2021
Illinois Undergrads Encourage ChiS&E CPS Students Toward Possible Careers in Engineering.

I-MRSEC’s Music Video

CISTEME365 Provides Year-Round PD/Community

January 4, 2021
to Illinois Teachers in Support of Informal STEM Education Efforts to Underserved Students.